Zhou was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province on 23 January 1939, with ancestry in Shangrao, Jiangxi. He was chosen for the Shanxi provincial table tennis team in 1957, and the Chinese national team the following year. He won a bronze medal in the men's doubles at the 1961 World Table Tennis Championships in Beijing, with partner Wang Jiasheng. At the 1965 World Table Tennis Championships in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, he was a member (with Li Furong, Xu Yinsheng, Zhang Xielin, and Zhuang Zedong) of the Chinese team that won the men's team gold medal. At the same event, he also won bronze medals in the men's singles and in the men's doubles (with Yu Changchun).