His ancestral home is Dinghai County, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province (now Dinghai District, Zhoushan City). His father is Dong Haoyun, the king of ships, and his brother is Tung Chee-hwa. He studied in Britain in his early years and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Liverpool. Later, he went to the United States to study and obtained a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.