Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved with his parents to California at a young age.

He graduated from Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California where he was captain of the golf team.

[1] Kim turned professional in 2011 and joined the European Challenge Tour in 2012, where he was runner-up at the Rolex Trophy in Switzerland behind Kristoffer Broberg in his rookie season.

In 2013, he was runner-up at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France and the Kharkov Superior Cup in Ukraine.

In 2022, after several close calls, he won his first Asian Tour title at the International Series Thailand, a week after finishing tied-second at the Royal's Cup behind Chan Shih-chang.