Chong was born in Toronto, Canada, and raised in New York City's Chinatown. He studied film-making and graphic design at the School of Visual Arts and the Pratt Institute. Ping Chong began his theatrical career as a member of Meredith Monk's The House Foundation.

He collaborated with her on several major works including The Travelogue Series and The Games, for which they shared the Outstanding Achievement in Music Theatre Award in 1986. In 1972, Ping Chong gathered a group of artists at Meredith Monk's loft in New York City to create Lazarus, his first independent theatre work.

Since then, he has created over fifty major works for the stage, including Humboldt's Current (Obie Award, 1977), A.M./A.M. - The Articulated Man (Villager Award, 1982), Nosferatu (Maharam Design Award, 1985), Angels of Swedenborg (1985), Kind Ness (USA Playwrights' Award, 1988), Brightness, which garnered two 1990 Bessie Awards, Deshima, Chinoiserie and After Sorrow. He is the recipient a 1992 New York Theatre and Dance "Bessie" Award for Sustained Achievement.

His series of community residency-based documentary theater explorations of immigrants, Undesireable Elements, have been created and performed in Rotterdam, New Jersey, New York, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington, and Japan. In 1998 he created Kwaidan, his first full-length puppetry work, in collaboration with Jon Ludwig and Mitsuru Ishii.

His work has been performed at such major New York venues as The Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival, The Joyce Theatre, La MaMa E.T.C., St. Clement's Theatre and The Central Park Summerstage, as well as at major museums, theatres and festivals in North America, Europe and Asia. In recent years he has expanded the range of his explorations to include video and visual arts installations.