Hailing from the planet Kashyyk, Gungi is a rarity, a Force Sensitive Wookie. As a youngling, he was taken in for training by the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars and trained under powerful Jedi Masters such as Ahsoka Tano and Yoda. When Order 66 was issued, he was attacked by the Clone Troopers they had been taught to trust and watched them massacre his fellow students. Only his connection to the Force, combined with his Wookie Rage, allowed him to escape the incident, though badly injured. He fled into the wilds, the Clone Troopers pursueing him. He was eventually cornered by a single Clone Trooper, one he had personally known. Too weak from his injuries to put up anymore fight, he used the Force to Influence his emotions, making the Clone Trooper feel a strong friendship towards Gungi. Though this was an attempt by the Wookie youngling to save his own life, the surge of emotion via the Force overloaded the control chip in the Troopers brain, liberating his mind & restoring his free will. Horrified by what he & his fellow Troopers had done, he convinced Gungi to give him his wooden Lightbsabre, caked in his own blood, & hide. When the Trooper joined back up with his unit, he displayed the Lightsabre like a trophy, lieing that he had finished the young Jedi Wookie off. Gungi never saw that Trooper again & never knew what had happened to him, but, he kept to the wilderness, recovering from his injuries until he was well enough to travel.
He was able to stow away on a transport ship heading into the Outer Rim & found a primitive backwater planet, where the new Galactic Empire had little presence, to hide on. Living as a hermit, he even found an Ancient Sword, a weapon used by Jedi before the creation of Lightsabres. He learned to be independent & self sufficient quickly, though his Wookie Rage was sometimes a problem.
After several years in hiding however, he felt the Force callingto him &, if there was one thing he never lost faith in, it was the Force. He followed this pull, trusting the wisdom of the Force.