He was born in Burma (now Myanmar) and came to the United States with his family in 1978. His haunting series of portraits Burma: Something Went Wrong was published by Light Works in Contact Sheet in 2000, and featured in Zoom in 2002. He has exhibited widely, including shows at Numark Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art (DC), Yancey Richardson Gallery (NYC) and Robert B. Menschel Gallery (Syracuse), and was featured in the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Chao teaches at George Washington University and the Corcoran College of Art and Design. In addition to the Burma series, his show at Mason includes a series of larger-than-life-size nude portraits. His project "Burma: Something Went Wrong" is part of the JGS, Inc. permanent collection.