He became the breakout cast member in the first season of Saturday Night Live (1975–1976), where his recurring Weekend Update segment became a staple of the show.

He has stated that he grew up in an upper middle class environment and that his adoptive maternal grandfather did not bequeath any assets to Chase's mother when he died.

[16] In a 2007 biography, Chase stated that he was physically and psychologically abused as a child by his mother and stepfather, Dr. John Cederquist, a psychoanalyst.

Abuse he was subjected to as a child included being awoken in the middle of the night by his mother to be slapped repeatedly across the face, lashes to the backs of his legs, punches to the head by his stepfather, and being locked in a bedroom closet for hours.

He attended Haverford College during the 1962–1963 term, where he was noted for slapstick comedy and an absurd sense of physical humor, including his signature pratfalls and "sticking forks into his orifices".

[21] Chase transferred to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he studied a pre-med curriculum and graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

[24] He played drums with the college band The Leather Canary, headed by school friends Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

He also wrote a one-page spoof of Mission: Impossible for Mad magazine in 1970 and was a writer for the short-lived Smothers Brothers TV show comeback in the spring of 1975.

[citation needed] Chase was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live (SNL), NBC's late-night comedy television show, beginning in October 1975.

In one comedy sketch, he mimicked a real-life incident in which President Gerald Ford accidentally tripped while disembarking from Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria.

In Rolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141 SNL cast members to date, Chase was ranked tenth in overall importance.

[citation needed] In late 1976, in the middle of SNL's second season, Chase became the first member of the original cast to leave the show.

While he landed starring roles in several films on the strength of his SNL fame, he asserted that the principal reason for his departure was the reluctance of his girlfriend, Jacqueline Carlin, to move to New York.

[36] Chase moved to Los Angeles, married Carlin, and was replaced by Bill Murray, although he made a few cameo appearances on the show during the second season.

Later appearances included a Caddyshack skit featuring Bill Murray, a 1997 episode with guest host Chris Farley, as the Land Shark in a Weekend Update segment in 2001, another Weekend Update segment in 2007, and in Justin Timberlake's monologue in 2013 as a member of the Five-Timers Club, where he was reunited with his Three Amigos co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short.

It reached a 73% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics saying: "Though unabashedly crude and juvenile, Caddyshack nevertheless scores with its classic slapstick, unforgettable characters, and endlessly quotable dialogue".

[43] That same year, he reunited with Foul Play co-star Goldie Hawn for Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times, a box-office success that earned more than $43 million.

[44] He then released a self-titled record album, co-produced by Chase and Tom Scott, with novelty and cover versions of songs by Randy Newman, Barry White, Bob Marley, the Beatles, Donna Summer, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Troggs, and The Sugarhill Gang.

In 1988, he starred alongside Madolyn Smith in Funny Farm, a sizeable hit at $25 million[53] that reached 64% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes.

Chase had three consecutive film flops: Razzie Award-nominated Nothing but Trouble (1991), Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), and Cops & Robbersons (1994).

Chase later appeared in a commercial for Doritos, airing during the Super Bowl, in which he made humorous reference to the show's failure.

He returned to mainstream movie-making in 2006, co-starring with Tim Allen and Courteney Cox in the comedy Zoom, though it was both a critical and commercial failure.

He also guest-starred in the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters in two episodes as a former love interest of Sally Field's character.

Chase appeared in a prominent recurring role as villainous software magnate Ted Roark on the NBC spy-comedy Chuck.

The show was created by Dan Harmon and starred Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, and Yvette Nicole Brown.

It was reported that in 2012 Chase "snapped and launched the tirade, airing his frustration and suggesting that the way things with Pierce are going, he may next be asked to call Troy (Glover) or Shirley (Brown) the N-word".

In spite of largely negative critical reception, the film proved to be a financial success, grossing over $107 million worldwide.

[75] In 2019, Chase was in the Netflix movie The Last Laugh where he starred alongside Richard Dreyfuss, and in 2024, he was in the film The Christmas Letter with Randy Quaid and Brian Doyle-Murray.

[84][85] In 2004, he mocked President George W. Bush during a speech at a People for the American Way benefit at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he referred to Bush as an "uneducated, real lying schmuck" and a "dumb fuck", which upset the organizers and the crowd, leading Norman Lear to categorize the statements as "utterly untoward.

"[86] While filming an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1978, Chase got into a fistfight with Bill Murray in John Belushi's dressing room.