Born to a Chinese American father and South Korean immigrant mother, Lum grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City. Her great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant in the 1940s and 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.
In 2014, Lum was added to the cast of the third season of Girl Code. In 2015, she served as a co-host with TV personality Nessa and Comedian Carly Aquilino for the spin-off titled Girl Code Live on MTV.
In 2015, publisher Potter Style, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, released Awkwafina's NYC, Lum's travel guide to New York City.
Lum is profiled in the documentary Bad Rap, which was an official selection at the 2016 TriBeCa Film Festival. Produced by Salima Koroma and Jaeki Cho, the film puts the spotlight on her as well as upcoming fellow Asian American Rappers such as Dumbfoundead, Rekstizzy, and Lyricks.
Lum was honored as Kore Asian Media's Female Breakout of the Year in December 2017.
In April 2018, she was announced as part of the cast of Paradise Hills, a sci-fi thriller directed by Alice Waddington and featuring Emma Roberts, Eiza Gonzalez and Danielle Macdonald.
