Native of Philadelphia, Chambers changed his first names from Jay Vivian to Whittaker (his mother's maiden name) in his youth. Chambers graduated from Columbia University in 1924. A Quaker, joined the Communist party in 1924, worked as operating editor of The Daily Worker and writer for The New Masses. Quit the Communist party in 1938, joined the staff of Time magazine in 1939.

After Chambers accused Hiss of being a communist, Hiss dug up stories about Chambers's homosexual experiences, and used them to smear Chambers in public. We know little about Chambers' years of homosexual activity, which terminated, he assured the FBI, with his break from the Communist party.

Chambers was a senior editor of Time until his resignation in 1948. Did most of his writing on his farm at Westminster, Md. His associates at Time described him as an "intellectual" and they add: "None of us knows him very well."