Voted the Sexiest Woman in Asia by FHM readers and one of the hottest properties in Hong Kong cinema, Christy Chung is actually Canadian born and bred. Her Chinese father and Vietnamese mother left Vietname and settled in Montreal. Christy Chung (Chung Lai-Tai) was born there on 17 September 1970 and grew up in the suburb of Brossard, with French and Vietnamese as her mother-tongues.

While studying for a career in the tourism industry at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), she entered and won the 'Miss Chinese Montreal' contest in 1992. She then went to Hong Kong, in her first trip away from home, to participate in the Miss Chinese International pageant in January 1993, which she won despite not knowing a single Chinese word. Christy had an offer of becoming the weather-forecast presenter at Société Radio-Canada, the French-language government television network in Canada, but winning Miss Chinese International opened what seemed bigger opportunities for a career in movies. Despite not speaking a word of Cantonese at the time, and acting experience that stretched only to an uncredited ten-second non-speaking role as a gum-chewing prostitute in Denys Arcand's Love And Human Remains, Christy headed off to Hong Kong to launch a career in acting.

A role in The Bride With White Hair 2 brought her instant recognition, and she rapidly became one of Hong Kong cinema's biggest stars and female sex symbols. She's starred alongside Stephen Chow in three movies, featured opposite Jet Li in The Bodyguard From Beijing and lit up screens beside Jackie Chan in The Medallion. Christy Chung returns regularly to her native Montreal and hit headlines during the city's infamous 1998 Ice Storm when giving birth to her daughter Jasmine. Christy gave birth in a Montreal hospital powered by back-up generators, staying an extra three days in her hospital bed because she had no heat in her minus 20 degree home.