Wong was the descendant and look-alike of Kan, a Tibetan monk who lived roughly one thousand years ago and was a student of the occult. For the ten generations preceding Wong's, the first-born males in his line have served the Ancient One, the former Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth dimension. The last of the members of Wong's family to serve the Ancient One was Wong's own father, Hamir the Hermit, who remained with the Ancient One up to the time of the latter's death.
Wong was the first-born son of Hamir, and thus his life was dedicated to the Ancient One from his earliest childhood. When Wong was four years old, Hamir presented him to the Ancient One. Subsequently, Wong was sent to a remote monastery to receive training in how to serve as a master sorcerer. Wong's relatives were allowed to visit him on occasions. Shortly before Wong's tenth birthday, Hamir brought a young couple to the monastery to visit Wong and made a marriage pact with them, betrothing Wong to their as yet unborn daughter. During his training at the monastery, Wong mastered certain Asian martial arts. He remains highly adept in the martial arts, although since actually becoming a servant he no longer practices them as much as he once did.
When Wong reached adulthood, the Ancient One sent him to the United States to his disciple, Doctor Stephen Strange. Wong was the first member of his family to come to America. Wong served Strange loyally and well for many years. During that time Strange succeeded the Ancient One as sorcerer supreme of the Earth dimension.
At one point Wong was abducted by other-dimensional sorcerers to the realm that was still ruled by the Shadowqueen. Doctor Strange followed Wong there and rescued him from the Shadowqueen's dungeon. Wong helped Strange battle the Shadowqueen, who finally perished.
Strange's secretary, Sara Wolfe, became strongly attracted to Wong, who began to reciprocate her feelings. However, Wong put an end to what might have become a romance with Wolfe when he was notified that Imei Chang, the woman to whom he was betrothed, had at last come of age to be married.
When Imei was apparently altered into a hideous demon by one of Strange's enemies, Wong hoped that Strange would be able to help her. Strange was having problems of his own at the time, and Wong took this as a sign that Strange wouldn't be able to help Imei. This resulted in the first friction between the Sorcerer Supreme and his old friend. Finally, Strange managed to redirect some attention to this matter, the magical probe revealed that the demon just acted like IMEI. In fact, he discovered that it wasn't Imei at all, but only a construct that was made to believe it was and that the true Imei had been killed. Although Wong was as yet unmarried and childless, he has stated that his first-born son would follow the family tradition of serving a mystic devoted to good.
This incident caused Wong to become mentally unhinged. For a while he operated as a staunch opponent of Strange, allying himself with other forces in order to battle him. The two eventually made their peace, re-establishing their old relationship. Said relationship then changed for the better, as both tried to treat each other as equals, instead of master and servant.
Wong and the empath, Topaz, were both abducted to another planet by the alien sorcerer, Urthona, when the latter used his magical powers to steal Doctor Strange's house and the mystical talismans and books it contained. Urthona even viciously mutilated Wong's face while holding him prisoner, Strange defeated Urthona and rescued Wong and Topaz. Back on Earth, Topaz used her healing powers to restore Wong's face to normalcy.
In order to rescue Wong and Topaz, Strange had found it necessary to unleash mystical forces that, he believed, destroyed the mystical talismans and books that Urthona had stolen, thus preventing Urthona from using them for evil purposes. (In actuality, and unknown to Strange, the books and talismans, were not destroyed but were instead spirited away by the mystical entity, Agamotto.) The disappearance of these talismans from the Earth dimension broke certain ancient spells holding various mystical menaces in check.
Strange subsequently cast a spell causing the population of the world, including Wong and Sara Wolfe, to believe him dead. As a result, Wong and Wolfe perceived Strange as a man named Stephen Sanders. Strange made Wong and Wolfe the joint administrators of the Stephen Strange Memorial Metaphysical Institute, an institution for research into the occult. Strange then embarked on a long quest during which he succeeded in defeating a number of the menaces that the disappearance of the talismans had unleashed, most notably Shuma-Gorath.[citation needed]
Following the defeat of Shuma-Gorath, Strange returned to New York City and released Wong and Sara Wolfe from his spell. Realizing that Strange was not dead, Wong and Wolfe warmly welcomed him back. Since then, the general populace has also learned that Doctor Strange was still alive and Strange had regained his missing talismans and books.
Sometime before the beginning of the Civil War, Wong discovered he had developed an inoperable brain tumor. He tried to conceal his condition from Strange, but the sorcerer found the medicine he had been using to mitigate his symptoms Doctor Strange found and battled the demon-god Otkid to retrieve Otkid's Elixir, a magic potion that had the power to "erase what troubles the mind of man" and which was in fact the cure for cancer. After some misadventures, Strange spent the last remaining drop of Otkid's Elixir to save Wong's life.
Following the Civil War, the New Avengers, a small group of superheroes who had gone underground in protest of the Superhuman Registration Act, took refuge in Doctor Strange's home. Wong served them just as ably as he served Strange, albeit with some grumbling at their treatment of his kitchen. But when the New Avengers left the Sanctum Sanctorum (shortly after Strange himself left, having surrendered the position of Sorcerer Supreme), Wong did not go with them.
When Doctor Strange rejoined the Avengers, he suggested hiring Wong as cook and housekeeper for Avengers Mansion. Though he groused at becoming "a second-rate Jarvis for a second-rate pile of Avengers," Wong accepted the position.
Having remained by Strange's side as his master regained the title of Sorcerer Supreme and returned to the Sanctum Sanctorum, Wong eventually departed after having a falling out with Stephen over the doctor's method of saving the life of their ally Zelma Stanton, who was fatally ill after transferring the effects of deadly poison from Strange to herself in order to save his life. Having devoted his entire life to the ways of magic, Wong set out to build a life of his own.
