David Chung Chi-Man was born in Hong Kong on November 14th, 1947. When he was seventeen, he learned cinematography and acted as a camera assistant under the Shaw Brothers camera department, becoming a cinematographer for TV in 1968, joining TVB in 1973. He shot his first feature film, For Whom to be Murdered, in 1978, and won his first award for Ann Hui's The Secret in 1979, winning Best Cinematography at the 17th Golden Horse Awards. He became a staple cinematographer for the Hong Kong New Wave directors, working with the likes of Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yim Ho, Alex Cheung, Tsui Hark, Dennis Yu etc. on acclaimed films such as Close Encounters of the First Kind, Nomad, My Love is that Eternal Rose, Once Upon a Time in China and so on.

In 1989 he became the vice chairman of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers. In 1995 he emigrated to America,