Samdech Vibol Panha Sok An was born in Kampong village, Preah Bat Chuan Chum commune, Kirivong district, Takeo province to a Hakka Chinese Cambodian family.

He pursued higher education at the École Normale Supérieure in Phnom Penh, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Geography, History and Sociology in 1972.

Following the general election organized by the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in 1993, he was elected to the National Assembly as a Member of Parliament for Takeo constituency and was assigned as Minister in charge of the government office of the Royal Government in the first legislature.

He chaired the Accreditation Committee of Cambodia, a body created in 2003 with the support of the World Bank to reform and standardize the educational sector at graduate and post-graduate levels in Cambodia, as well as to initiate curriculum of the one-year foundation studies for university students.

Sok An was actively engaged in negotiations with neighboring countries to address border issues and the development of petroleum and gas resources in areas of joint control.

His involvement with Cultural Heritage was long-standing and diverse: as President of the APSARA National Authority, the governmental body that manages the 40,000 hectares of the Park of Angkor inscribed on the World Heritage List, he ensured the values that justified its inscription, and preserved a balance between the needs of conservation and the necessities of development.

From the mid-1990s to the year of An's death, with the help of and in coordination with the ICC-Angkor, the APSARA National Authority received more than US$500 million in grants for the funding of some 70 projects from various countries and international communities.

During the 31st regular session of the World Heritage Committee in Christchurch, in response to the presentation of the portfolio by the Cambodian delegation team led by An, the Committee recognized “that the Sacred Site of the Temple of Prasat Preah Vihear is of great international significance and has Outstanding Universal Value and agreed in principle that it should be inscribed on the World Heritage List” which led to its formal inscription by the Committee at its 32nd session in Canada in 2008.