He is regarded as a founding figure of bioengineering, tissue engineering, and the "Founder of Modern Biomechanics".

Fung was Professor Emeritus and Research Engineer at the University of California San Diego.

He published prominent texts along with Pin Tong who was then at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Fung died at Jacobs Medical Center in San Diego, California, aged 100, on December 15, 2019.

[2][3] Fung was married to Luna Yu Hsien-Shih, a former mathematician and cofounder of the UC San Diego International Center, until her death in 2017.

He is also one of the principal founders of the Journal of Biomechanics and was a past chair of the ASME International Applied Mechanics Division.

Fung and colleagues were also the first to recognize the importance of residual stress on arterial mechanical behavior.