Boey was born in Singapore in 1965. He received his secondary education at Victoria School[4] and graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degrees in English Literature from the National University of Singapore. In 1993, he won a scholarship from the Goethe-Institut to pursue German. He was sponsored by the United States Information Agency to attend the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Boey embarked on a doctoral program with the National University of Singapore which he later discontinued. He entered the workforce and was employed by the Ministry of Community Development as a probation officer.
Disillusioned with the state of literary and cultural politics in Singapore, Boey left for Sydney with his wife in 1997 and became an Australian citizen.[5] He completed his PhD studies with Macquarie University.
