[11] After graduating from college, Chang pursued a variety of jobs, including teaching English in Japan, then bussing tables and holding finance positions in New York City.

While he was training, he also worked part-time at Mercer Kitchen in Manhattan and got a job answering phones at Tom Colicchio's Craft restaurant.

Chang stayed at Craft for two years and then moved to Japan to work at a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt Hotel.

"[22] In March 2008, Chang opened Momofuku Ko, a 12-seat restaurant that takes reservations ten[23] days in advance, online only, on a first-come-first-served basis.

[35] Chang launched Fuku, a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken sandwiches, in June 2015.

[36] In 2016, Chang launched his first digital-only restaurant, which offers a menu only for delivery in Midtown East and takes orders taken via an app named Ando.

[49] In 2010, he appeared in the fifth episode of HBO's Treme alongside fellow chefs Tom Colicchio, Eric Ripert and Wylie Dufresne.

His presence on the show was expanded in the second season when one of the characters, a New Orleans chef who has moved to New York City, takes a job in his restaurant.

Chang hosted the first season of the PBS food series The Mind of a Chef, which was executive produced by Anthony Bourdain and premiered in the fall of 2012.

[52] Chang also appeared in another Netflix series The Chef Show, produced by his friends Roy Choi and Jon Favreau.

In 2019, he produced a Netflix original titled "Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner" with guest stars including Seth Rogen and Kate McKinnon.

[53] On November 29, 2020, he became the first celebrity to win the $1,000,000 top prize for his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation, and the fourteenth overall million dollar winner on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

"[55] In summer 2011, Chang released the first issue of his Lucky Peach food magazine, a quarterly publication created with Peter Meehan and published by McSweeney's.

[58] Contributors to Issue 2 include Bourdain, Harold McGee, Momofuku Milk Bar's Christina Tosi, Daniel Patterson and Russell Chatham.

[61] Chang created a controversy in 2009 by making dismissive remarks about California chefs, telling Anthony Bourdain, "They don't manipulate food, they just put figs on a plate.

"[65] In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Momofuku argued that the trademark was not intended to stifle any competition surrounding the sauces, stating that "When we created our product, we wanted a name we could own and intentionally picked 'Chili Crunch' to further differentiate it from the broader chili crisp category.