Champion was born in 1882 in Norfolk Island (now an Australian territory but then a British colony). He moved to New Zealand as a teenager. His mother, Sarah Clara Quintal, descended from the "Bounty" mutineer Matthew Quintal. His father Captain William Nihill Champion was a sea captain who traded around the Pacific. Malcolm later worked on his father's ships and by the end of the 19th century was living in Auckland. He died on 26 July 1939 in Auckland, New Zealand.