Kunkel's father,
Louis O. Kunkel, was a professor of plant pathology at the Rockefeller University. Kunkel grew up in Yonkers (New York) and Princeton. He studied at
Princeton University (BA 1938) and
Johns Hopkins University Medical School (MD 1942). After working two years at Bellevue Hospital in New York, in 1944 he became a U.S. Navy doctor and took part in the landings in Italy. He started there for hepatitis diseases and interested to put this in the context of the U.S. Navy hepatitis research program, after the war he continued his work at the Rockefeller Institute and Hospital in New York City. In 1947, he became assistant researcher there, from 1949 to 1952 he served as a researcher, he spent the rest of his career at the
Rockefeller University. ==Awards==