His father was a physical education teacher, while his uncle, Chiu Shi-you (Chinese: 邱仕友), was a tennis and gymnastics coach at Fu Hsing Kang College.
[2] His older brother, Chiu Yuh-yuan (Chinese: 邱毓源), who was a weightlifter, once had the national record in the snatch event in the 67.5 kg (149 lb) weight division.
[16] Chiu competed as a flyweight in the National Weightlifting Championships and Olympics Athlete Preliminary Selection in April 1983.
[18] Chiu competed in the bantamweight division in the Baosheng Emperor Cup Weightlifting Championships (Chinese: 保生大帝杯舉重錦標賽), where he lifted 131 kg (289 lb) in the clean and jerk and broke a national record.
[2] Bringing the medals he had won, Chiu met with the Pingtung County education director to seek employment but was turned down because of a lack of teaching roles.
[3][21] Chiu had spent almost a year practicing in Tainan and Zuoying District after being chosen for Taiwan's national weightlifting team.
[3] After reviewing media coverage about Chiu's situation, Taipei's Qinyi Trading Company (Chinese: 慶宜貿易有限公司) gave him a job offer in marketing and promotional planning with a monthly salary of NT$18,000 (US$644).
[24] On 25 December 1985, Chiu was driving a minivan in Changzhi in Pingtung when he accidentally struck a three-year-old girl, Tu Yu-lan (Chinese: 涂毓蘭), at 10:45 am.
At the time of his sentencing, he was a physical education instructor at Chih Cheng Junior High School (Chinese: 至正國中屏東) in Pingtung.