Modern Tae Kwon Do owes its origins to a number of primitive styles which were being practised throughout the orient as early as the first century AD.

Two of these styles, Kwan Bop and Soo Bak, were brought to Korea by descendants of the original followers of Bodhidharma. They were incorporated into one style, and made mandatory training for warriors by the then military dictator General Choi, in the latter part of the Yi dynasty; a peaceful period characterized by renewed interest in literature and painting.

Soo Bok Do, as the system was then known, declined in popularity, not to rise again until the start of the Sino-Japanese war of 1894. At this time it came to be called Tae Kwon or Tang Soo Do 'the art of China hand'.

Upon the liberation of a national sport, Moo Duk Kwan is one of many schools which sprung from the basic principles of modern Tae Kwon Do.