In 1912, Tung-Yen Lin was born into a scholarly family at the foot of Wushi Mountain in Fuzhou City, Fujian Province. His ancestral home was in Donghan Village, Yunzhuang Beichuang, Fuqing, Fuzhou.

In 1913, at the age of one, he moved with his family to Beijing. He attended Huiwen Middle School in Beijing.

In 1923, he was admitted to Chongde Middle School, which was founded by the British. Since the first-year class did not admit students, he self-studied and tested into the third-year class. He only studied at Chongde for a year before the May 30th Incident occurred. To break free from national humiliation, he angrily left Chongde and transferred to Huiwen Middle School, founded by Americans. Since there were no admissions for the first year of high school, he skipped a grade and was admitted to the second year of high school.

In 1927, at the age of 15, he entered the Tangshan University of the Ministry of Communications (now Southwest Jiaotong University) with first place in mathematics and second place in other subjects.

In 1931, he earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Tangshan University of the Ministry of Communications (now Southwest Jiaotong University), and immediately went to the University of California, Berkeley, in the U.S., to pursue a master's degree in civil engineering. His master's thesis, "The Method of Moment Distribution" (published in 1934), was named the "Lin's Method" and gained significant recognition in the American construction industry.

In 1933, he obtained his master's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and after returning to China, he worked for the Ministry of Railways, serving as Chief of the Bridge Division for the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Chief of the Design Division for the Yunnan-Burma Railway, Chief Engineer of the Gongxin Company, and Director of the Taiwan Sugar Railway.

From 1933 to 1946, he successively held positions as Chief of the Bridge Division for the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway, Chief of the Design Division for the Yunnan-Burma Railway, Chief Engineer of the Gongxin Company, and Director of the Taiwan Sugar Railway.

From 1946 to 1976, he returned to the U.S. and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, where he served as Professor, Head of the Structural Engineering and Mechanics Division in the Department of Civil Engineering, Director of the Structural Engineering Laboratory, and Chairman of the Educational Development Committee. After retiring, the university awarded him the title of Lifetime Honorary Professor.