Sun Moon University was founded in 1972 by the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, also known as the Unificiation Church. As a religious school, all students are required to take four semester of chapel to graduate.

The school has two campuses, with the Asan Campus in Asan, South Chungcheong considered the main campus. The university is just down the road from the Tangjeong neighborhood, home to one of Korea's biggest industrial complexes, the Samsung Display factories. Although in a rural setting, the Asan campus is only a short drive from Cheonan-Asan KTX station, where you can get a train to central Seoul in 40 minutes. The university's Cheonan campus is in neighboring Cheonan, South Chungcheong, located within an hour's bus ride from the Asan campus. Smaller than the main campus, it only offers classes for the university's Korean Language Institute.