Yang was born to Korean-American parents who were refugees from the Korean War and was raised in New Jersey.
Yang attracted mainstream attention in 2008 after publishing an article in n+1 about Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech shooting.
Yang opposes this ideology and believes it may replace traditional liberal values.
[2][3] In 2024, Yang withdrew from the lineup at a conference celebrating the 60th anniversary of Skidmore College's Salmagundi magazine after word spread on campus of his history of anti-transgender vitriol.
[4][5] Yang costarred as Wes in the 2008 Alex Karpovsky docufiction film Woodpecker.