Chen Wen-yu was born in 1925, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, to a farming family in Tainan. His father raised sugarcane, and though his family was well off, Chen still had to help out in the fields after school.
陳文郁，1925 年（日治大正 14 年）生於台南農家，父親是蔗農，雖然家境小康，放學後還是得到田裡幫忙農事。