Kim’s birth was unusually difficult. He came into the world only after his father had climbed onto the rooftop wearing a packsaddle and imitated the sounds of a cow. Hischildhood name was “Chang-am.”

Throughout his childhood, Kim Koo was a mischievous boy He would break his father’ spoon and trade it for candy and spill his mother’s paint into the stream and watch it flow with the water.

As he grew up, Kim Koo witnessed the discrimination between the yangban(aristocrats)and the common people Upon learning that he could become a yangban by passing the gwageo, the highest state examination for the ecruitment of ranking officials he hegged his father to send him to a village school and dedicated himself to his studie.

Kim Koo began studying at the village school with the goal of taking the gwageo exam and becoming a yangban. Every morning, he woke at dawn and sought out his teacher before anyone else to pursue his studies. Despite the difficulties his family faced, he devoted himself to preparing for the exam by studying the Confucian classics and pouring over books of history, Sing-Korean and Chinese poetry.

In 1892, when he was 17 years old, Kim Koo applied to take the examination to become a county magistrate for Hwang-hae Province. However, he was deeply disappointed to find that cheating and corruption were prevalent. As a result, he eventually decided to abandon his goal of becoming a yangban.

After deciding to abandon his gwageo studies, Kim Koo started studying the theory of divination, based on topography, and physiognomy, which determined a person’s destiny by his facial features. He learned a great deal from his studies of physiognomy and set himself the goal of becoming a good person.