In Fina We Trust

Nora Lum Ying was born to a Chinese American father and South Korean immigrant mother. She grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. Her great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant in the 1940s who opened the Cantonese restaurant Lum’s in Flushing, Queens. Lum's mother died when she was four, and she was raised and influenced heavily by her grandmother.
Lum attended LaGuardia High School where she played trumpet and was trained in classical and jazz music. At age 16, she adopted the stage name Awkwafina, which "[refers to] a person [she] repressed" and an alter ego to her "quiet and more passive" personality during her college years. Lum majored in journalism and women's studies at The University at Albany. From 2006 to 2008, Lum attended the Beijing Language and Culture University in Beijing, China, where she studied Mandarin.
Prior to her career in entertainment, she was an intern at local New York publications Gotham Gazette and Times Union, and was a publicity assistant for publishing house Rodale.
She cites Charles Bukowski, Anaïs Nin, Joan Didion, Tom Waits and Chet Baker as early influences.