Taiwan independence movement
Koo was born in Kobe. His father, Koo Kwang-ming, was an activist in the Taiwan independence movement then living in exile in Japan, and the brother of the prominent Taiwanese businessman Koo Chen-fu. Koo lived in Tokyo for 13 years in his youth, and later attended the University of California, Berkeley where he received a BA degree in Political Science and Government in 1976. He then proceeded to Johns Hopkins University for graduate school, where he received an MA degree in 1981.