Born Ke Huy-Quan on August 20, 1971, Jonathan Ke Quan eventually became a child actor when he left Vietnam, his birth place. His family was chosen for political asylum and soon immigrated to the United States. He attended Alhambra High School in California. After finishing high school, he went to the University of Southern California, School of Cinematic Arts, where he graduated. He speaks fluent Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin and English.
Jonathan Ke Quan also appeared as a child actor in the 1985 classic, The Goonies, as Richard ‘Data’ Wang. He became well-known for playing Harrison Ford’s sidekick, Short Round, in the action-adventure Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when he was 12-13. The Spielberg film was released in 1984 and Short Round appears in the opening scene, waiting in the getaway car.
In 1986, he played Sam on the brief TV series Together We Stand. The following year, he played Rick in Passenger: Sugisarishi hibi, released in Japan. From 1989 to 1991, he portrayed Jasper Kwong in the ABC sitcom Head of the Class. He also starred in the martial arts movie Breathing Fire in 1991 as Charlie Moore, and had a cameo in Encino Man, a comedy with Brendan Fraser, Sean Astin and Pauly Shore. Jonathan Ke Quan was also in the 2002 Hong Kong movie, Second Time Around, together with Ekin Cheng and Cecilia Cheung.
On the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, he studied Tae Kwon Do under Philip Tan. Later on, he trained with Tao-liang Tan. With his skills in martial arts, he worked as an assistant fight choreographer in X-men by Bryan Singer. He also did the same for Jet Li in The One, directed by James Wong. He also became a cinematographer for Gregg Bishop’s short comedy, Voodoo, in 1999.