She is the youngest child of three of May Oung, a legal scholar who served Minister of Home Affairs of British Burma, and his wife Thein Mya, a great-granddaughter of Htaw Lay, Governor of Dala.

She continuing educated at Rangoon College, she got ranking first and was awarded Jardin Prize.

[2] Mya Sein was the first Burmese woman to graduate from Oxford University in the late 1930.

From 1939 to 1942, She served as a representative member of the Burmese-Chinese Peace and chairwoman of the Yangon Education Board.

After her retirement, she became a visiting professor of Burmese history and culture at Columbia University in New York.