Tommy Gunawan was born in Indonesia and grew up in Singapore. He came to the United States to earn his Bachelor's in Psychology from Chapman University in 2013. He completed his Master's in Psychology in 2018, and his Ph.D. in Behavior, Cognition, and Neuroscience from American University in 2020. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. 

He is interested in the neuropsychopharmacology of psychotropic drugs. His research primarily focused on how environmental, psychosocial, and pharmacological factors interact to modulate drug effects and risk of psychiatric disorders using both preclinical and clinical experimental models. 

He enjoys being in nature, rock climbing, cooking, and chess.