David K. S. Tse was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to the UK with his family in 1970. Tse is a Law Graduate from Southampton University (1986) and trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. He left Rose Bruford early for his first professional job, playing Kurogo in the West End premiere of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly with Anthony Hopkins in the lead at the Shaftesbury Theatre in 1989.