Yun's father was a poet, and Yun himself began his musical studies in 1933 in Tokyo and Osaka. He returned to Korea during World War II to join the struggle for liberation, which resulted in his imprisonment by the Japanese in 1943. Between 1946 and 1956, he taught at various schools and universities in South Korea and won the South Korean Culture Award in 1955. Yun went to Europe in 1956 to establish contacts with the avant-garde and studied under various teachers, including Tony Aubin in Paris, and Boris Blacher, Josef Rufer, and Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling in West Berlin. The South Korean Secret Police kidnapped him in 1967 due to his political involvement and his trip to North Korea in 1963. After being released two years later due to international pressure, he became a German citizen and taught at the Musikhochschule Hannover before settling in West Berlin in 1970. From 1974 to 1985, he was a professor of composition at the Musikhochschule West Berlin.
