Often regarded as the richest man in Malaysia, media shy Kuok, was born in Johor, but actually now lives in Deep Water Bay on Hong Kong island. The youngest of three brothers, he went to Raffles Institution, just across the water in Singapore where he was classmates with the founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew.

During the Japanese occupation of the island he worked as a clerk, working his way up to the head of the rice trading department for the Japanese company Mitsubishi Shoji Kaisha. After liberation, he took the skills and he had learned back to his family business in Johor. When his father died shortly after in 1948, Kuok, along with his two brothers and a cousin set up Brothers Sdn Bhd, dealing in agricultural commodities.
In 1959 he, and two Japanese contacts he had made and kept from his earlier career, founded Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co. Bhd. At one stage, the “Sugar King of Asia” as he became known was responsible for 80% of all the sugar in Malaysia.

1971 saw him build the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, building a second one in Kowloon in 1977. He is the owner of the Kuok Group and also holds a large stake in Wilmar international, which is run by his nephew Kuok Khoon Hong.