Eli Kim was born as Ellison Kyoung-jae Kim (김경재) in Los Angeles, California on March 13, 1991, but grew up in Virginia. Kim is most known as being a member of the South Korean idol group U-KISS since their debut in 2008.

After 11 years, he left U-KISS and NH Media in 2019 due to his contract expiring. During his time in the group, he had been married to a model, who is 11 years his senior, and had a child with her – a son by the name of Michael Min-soo Kim who was born on June 8, 2016.