Grew up on Lamma Island near Hong Kong (HK)

Arose at 4 am each morning to sell dim sum

At age ten, moved with family to Kowloon, a part of Hong Kong connected by land to China (date approximate)

Enrolled in a leftist school that promoted the teachings of Mao Tse-tung

Participated in riots as the Cultural Revolution spread to Hong Kong; transferred by his alarmed mother to a boarding school set up by the Nationalist Party Kuomintang

At 16, worked in a factory, packing radios to ship overseas for $1.40 per day

Quit school at age 17 (date approximate)

Worked variously as a bellboy, office boy, postman and camera salesman

Suffered a serious motor bike accident

Answered a newspaper ad inviting people to apply for "free" acting classes

Enrolled in an actor's training course at TVB, a leading HK television operation (broadcasting at home, video distribution throughout Asia) owned by the Shaw Brothers

Started acting; signed a three-year contract with TVB for less than HK $500 per month

Acted in over 1,000 episodes of various soap operas

Began his 128 episode stint as the young hunk on the HK primetime soap "Hotel"

Feature debut, "The Reincarnation"

First film in a leading role, "Massage Girls"

Renegotiated contract with TVB; stayed for an additional ten years

Increased his popularity playing a white-suited 1920s crime boss in the TV series, "Shanghai Bund"

Breakthrough feature performance in "The Story of Woo Viet"

Episodes of "Shanghai Bund" re-edited into two features released in January, "The Bund" and "The Bund, Part II"

Won acclaim starring in the period dramatic feature, "Hong Kong 1941"

Revived flagging film career and attained international superstar status as star of the landmark gangster melodrama, "A Better Tomorrow"; first collaboration with writer-director John Woo; starred in two sequels, "A Better Tomorrow II" (1987, also directed by Woo) and "A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon" (1989, helmed by Tsui Hark)

Starred as an undercover cop in the popular, influential and Hong Kong Academy Award-winning crime film, "City on Fire"; first collaboration with director Ringo Lam; starred in two thematically related sequels, "Prison on Fire" (also 1987) and "Prison on Fire II" (1991)

In "Scared Stiff", played a true villain for the first (and, to date, the last) time in his HK film career

Starred in the popular action comedy "The God of Gamblers", which inaugurated a cycle of gambler films; reprised his role for "Return of the God of Gamblers" (1994)

Fifth and last HK collaboration with Woo, "Hard Boiled"

Fifth and last HK collaboration with Lam, "Full Contact"

Last Hong Kong film (to date), "Peace Hotel"

First American feature, "The Replacement Killers", executive produced by Woo; acted opposite Mira Sorvino, whose fluency in Mandarin helped immeasurably as the two co-stars could converse when Chow's English failed him

Played Nick Chen, head of the NYPD's Asian gang unit, who teams with unlikely partner Mark Walhlburg, in "The Corrupter", a routine guns and mayhem picture

Portrayed Siamese ruler Mongkut to Jodie Foster's English governness in "Anna and the King"; filmed in Malaysia

Starred as Li Mu Bai, a noble and expert warrior looking for peace in his final days, in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", a tour de force martial arts epic filmed in Mandarin dialect; subtitled for foreign audiences; debuted at Cannes

Starred in title role of "Bulletproof Monk"

Made a surprise cameo in the mainland Chinese indie-hit "Waiting Alone"

Teamed up with Gong Li to star in "Curse of the Golden Flower" a film by Zhang Yimou

Cast as Chinese pirate Sao Feng in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End"