 Othman Wok was born on 8 October 1924 in the then British colony of Singapore, to a family of Orang Laut origins.His father, Wok Ahmad, had been a school teacher and principal.During the Japanese occupation of Singapore in the Second World War from 1942-1945, Wok Ahmad enrolled Othman in a Japanese school in the belief that doing so would prevent Othman from being conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army.