Chu was born in Xiao district in Anhui, China in 1920. Both his father and grandfather were traditional doctors who collected Chinese paintings. In his early childhood, a tutor taught Chu and his two older brothers calligraphy and classical Chinese poetry. With the encouragement of his father, Chu enrolled in the Hangzhou Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 15. It was at the Academy that Chu began his lifelong friendship with Wu Guanzhong.

Between the 1930s and '40s, Chu travelled across China teaching at various institutions and participating in group exhibitions, including one with Zao Wou-Ki in 1945. Upon the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, Chu moved to Taiwan and held his first solo exhibition in 1954 at Taipei’s Sun Yatsen Hall. All the paintings were sold, allowing him to finance his trip to France and his first years in Paris. During his years abroad, Chu further explored the integration of classical Chinese arts with newfound inspirations from Western abstraction, likening the controlled spontaneity of both techniques.

In 1956, he was selected from many prestigious painters including Picasso, Miro and Cocteau for the exhibition "Peinture d'Aujourd'hui" in the Palais Royal gardens where he exhibited a semi-abstract painting.

In 1979, the Cernuschi Museum organised an exhibition of Lin Fengmian who came to Paris with Liu Kaiqu and a delegation of Chinese sculptors. This was an opportunity for CHU to see his former teachers and friends again.

In 1981, Wu Guanzhong came to Paris and the two friends finally met again.

On 17th December 1997, Chu Teh-Chun was inducted into the Academy of Fine Arts. He was the first Chinese person to join the Academy.