Colby Ko is a joint degree student at the Jackson School of Global Affairs and the Yale School of Management, focusing on emerging technologies. Before coming to Yale, he worked at the United Nations Command in South Korea, where he coordinated multinational enforcement of the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement along the Demilitarized Zone. Prior to that, he served aboard nuclear-powered submarines as a U.S. naval officer.

Colby grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, before attending the U.S. Naval Academy, where he studied mechanical engineering and was a member of the crew team.