As a freshman, Chandler enrolled at Dominguez High School in Compton, California, a school known for its athletics, producing basketball players such as Dennis Johnson and Cedric Ceballos. In his freshman year, Chandler made the varsity team and played with future NBA player Tayshaun Prince, who was then a senior. With the Dominguez Dons, Chandler became a teenage sensation; current players such as DeMar DeRozan watched him play and claimed "he was like Shaq". Point guard Brandon Jennings, who was a ball boy for Dominguez at the time, said, "You'd see the girls around Tyson, the Escalade he drove, and you wanted to be like him". Chandler earned accolades from "Parade Magazine" and "USA Today" and was selected to the McDonald's High School All-America Team. As a freshman, he was profiled on current affairs TV program "60 Minutes".