Chon was born in Garden Grove, California and raised in Irvine, California. His father, Sang, who worked in show business, was a child actor in South of Korea, and was often in black and white films. Chon grew up watching his father"s films, which eventually inspired him to pursue acting.
His mother, Kyung, is a pianist and homemaker.
Chon was educated at University High School in his home city of Irvine in California, where he played saxophone in the marching band, followed by the University of Southern California in Los Angeles (also in California), where he majored in Business Administration.
He is best known for portraying Eric Yorkie in The Twilight Saga film series (2008–2012). He is of South Korean descent. In order to improve his ability in the language, he spent time in South of Korea as part of a year abroad in his junior year.
During the first semester, he lived in the dorms of Yonsei University, in the capital, Seoul.
Acting Chon started acting in 2005 in shows such as Jack & Bobby and Taki & Luci. He came to fame in 2006 when he played Peter Wu in the Disney Channel film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior.
He also played Tony Lee in the Nickelodeon sitcom Just Jordan. In 2008, he played Eric Yorkie in the film Twilight, based on the book by Stephenie Meyer.
Justin reprised his role as Eric Yorkie in the Twilight sequel New Moon.
He starred as the central character, Jeff Chang, in the film 21 & Over. He also appeared in the independent film Innocent Blood. In 2014, Chon appeared as a lead character in crime drama film Revenge of the Green Dragons (executive produced by Martin Scorsese ).
In 2015, Chon starred as "Sid Park", the trouble-making main character influenced by rocker culture in the independent film Seoul Searching directed by Benson Lee, which made its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Festival.
Directing Chon also co-wrote (with Kevin Wu aka KevJumba), directed, executive produced, and starred in a feature film released in 2015 entitled Manitoba Up. The film made its premiere at the 2015 CAAMFest.
lieutenant also screened at the 2015 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Festival, making its West Coast Premiere there. The film is set in Hawaii and stars himself (Justin Chon), Kevin Wu, Amy Hill, Parvesh Cheena, Nichole Bloom, Dion Basco, Samantha Futerman and more.
In March 2015, the comedy was acquired by "Office the Dock", a digital studio owned by Lakeshore Entertainment.
Chon has also directed several digital short films that are viewable on his YouTube Channel, including You"re Stoopid (2013), Full Circle (2013) and 90 Day Visa (2015). Other ventures Chon co-owns a chain of stores, named the Attic, in California. Since November 24, 2015, he has uploaded daily edited vlogs to the channel.
He also creates short comedy videos on YouTube with his friends.
He appeared on Nigahiga"s YouTube channel in the video,"Proving the Illuminati is Real!" Justin also uploads skits on his channel. His last skit was uploaded with a friend and Justin"s wife Sasha the day before he began daily vlogging.
