According to his official biography, Ryu was born in Japan on July 21, 1964. He stands 175 cm (just under 5' 9") and weighs 68 kg. His blood type is O. He can sleep anywhere, and hates spiders.

Both Ryu and Ken are practitioners of an extremely violent martial art called Ansatsuken, incorporating the most violent techniques from a blend of 4 martial arts alongside a dark technique called Shun Goku Satsu. Both Ryu and Ken learned Ansatsuken from Gouken, who vowed to teach a less violent variation of Ansatsuken which does not include the Shun Goku Satsu and the discipline's life-threatening techniques (such as Akuma's Side Stance Death Fist).

Ryu's techniques consist of the Hadoken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumakisenpukyaku.