Ronald McKie was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, and was educated at the Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland. McKie worked as a journalist on newspapers in Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and China. During World War II he served with the AIF for a short time (1942-1943) before becoming a war correspondent for the Sydney Daily Telegraph and the London Evening Standard. After the war he worked for the Sydney Daily Telegraph.
Between 1950 and 1980 McKie wrote a number of books on the war, including Proud Echo (1953) and Echoes from Forgotten Wars (1980), as well as several books on the Asian region, including Malaysia in Focus (1963) and Singapore (1972). McKie is also highly regarded for his works of fiction. He is best-known for The Mango Tree (1974), an award-winning account of his boyhood in Bundaberg, Queensland.