Liao was born on February 6, 1976, in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, New York. His father is Taiwanese, and his mother is Japanese. He attended graduate school at the Juilliard School's Drama Division, graduating in 2004, and studied at the Marjorie Ballentine Studio. In addition to numerous roles in movies and TV shows, he performed on stage, including portraying Song Liling in Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage production of M. Butterfly. Liao also provided voice and motion-capture acting for the role of Kenji in the video game Ghost of Tsushima (2020).
