The University was originally founded in the mid-1960s by the late Homer Cheng, M.D. Dr. Cheng received his medical training at the University of Maryland and his practice in Los Angeles was devoted to rehabilitation medicine. In practice, Dr. Cheng realized that the medicine of his ancestors could more effectively treat many of the conditions he saw in his patients. As he and his colleagues learned more about the efficacy of acupuncture, Chinese herbology and other Asian techniques, the need to establish a training center in these modalities became apparent.

Dr. Cheng believed that such a center must serve to bring Asian medicine to medical practitioners but also to those seeking a course of study leading to complementary health care careers. Their original purpose was to train medical missionaries working in Third World areas using the principles and techniques of Oriental Medicine, believing this to be an inexpensive way to augment treatment in economically depressed areas of the world. He and his colleagues believed that this new career must have a firm foundation in biomedical science and clinical sciences. Samra University derives its name from the acronym of its parent, the Sino-American Medical Rehabilitation Association, formally chartered in 1969. Since, SAMRA has grown in size, name recognition and reputation as a premier school of Asian Medicine.

By 1975, Samra had established a Research Institute of Therapeutics and Acupuncture (RITA), with a healing arts center in Los Angeles. In 1979 it became the first Acupuncture School in California to be approved by the State Medical Board, Division of Allied Health Professions and the first to be authorized by the State Department of Education to offer certificates of study and to grant degrees in Oriental Medicine. In 2010, Samra University was re-organized as a privateinstitution under the leadership of Dr. Tae Cheong Choo, Ph.D., L.Ac.