Athena Chu Yan was born on October 25, 1971. She entered the HK Academy for Performing Arts around 1990 and graduated in 1992. During that time, Chu earned tuition money by working at TVB as the host of children's shows. Shortly after graduation, she made her movie debut in Fight Back to School 2 and was nominated for a Best New Artist HK Film Award. It was on the set of that film where she met and began dating Stephen Chow, but their romance was reportedly fraught with troubles and would end on a sour note a few years later. In 1995, Chu appeared as Chow's onscreen lady love a final time in A Chinese Odyssey Part 2: Cinderella.

Regarded by many as a sex goddess, Chu has generally been cast in flower vase roles. She even made two appearances in Wong Jing’s exploitative Raped by an Angel series, but remained clothed throughout those films and is actually a devout Christian. Her religious faith led Chu to what would be her best role to date in The Boss Up There (1999). Chu’s portrayal of a druggie who finds God earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the Golden Horse Film Awards. She can more recently be seen in a web-broadcast series called “20/30 Dictionary”, which has been touted as the Hong Kong “Sex and the City”.

In addition to acting, Chu has musical aspirations (Unfortunately for Chu, this is a case of her aspirations being bigger than her talents). Unhappy with the results of her first few albums, Chu invested her own money and creative energy into the making of her last record, "Athena in Maldives”. For her next album, due out in September of 2003, Chu will take over producer duties and even write some of the songs too. (Yinique 2003)