Tôn Nữ Thị Thiên Hương was born in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, within French Indochina at the time.
[1][2] Thien Huong took acting lessons, and made her first appearances as a stage actress in 1960, in Albert Camus' Les Justes and Jean Cocteau's L’Épouse injustement soupçonnée.
She appeared on television in the shows L’École des vedettes and Discorama, and in Robert Hossein's film Le Jeu de la vérité.
They were followed by "Je ne veux plus t’aimer", her version of Goffin and King's "I Can't Stay Mad at You", first recorded by Skeeter Davis.
Tiny Yong became popular on the radio show Salut les copains, which promoted her as one of the new wave of "yé-yé" singers, and several of her recordings became chart hits in France.