His parents were farmers and poor. He grew up on an island without electricity. While in college, Chow began training to become an actor with TVB. He first appeared on the 1980 TV series "The Bund". Chow appeared in many TV series, but he wanted to act in movies. He acted in a few movies, but they were very bad. He finally became sucessful when he teamed with John Woo in "A Better Tomorrow".