[6] At Roosevelt she was active in student government, volunteered in the school library, and was a member of the A Cappella Choir and Swim Club.

During high school Frances Chung took part in USO entertainments in Hawaii, and performed in a continuing community variety show called "The Gay Nineties".

[6] After graduating from Roosevelt High School in June 1945,[8] she attended Long Beach City College (LBCC) on the mainland, studying Dramatics.

She joined a twelve-piece band called "The Cathayans", doing lead vocals for engagements at the St. Francis Hotel and other San Francisco venues.

[17] Fong had another uncredited bit part in Around the World in 80 Days, plus appearances on television series Navy Log and Cavalcade of America during 1956.

She was top billed at San Francisco's Forbidden City during the last quarter of 1958,[19] with local columnists noting whenever she temporarily left to film a show in Hollywood.

She had been cast for recurring roles in two series, Shark Street and Brady, but after filming the pilot episodes both shows remained unsold.

[18] Some of the shows she did appear in such as Peter Gunn, Hawaiian Eye, Bachelor Father, and Perry Mason were quite popular, so that she felt it worthwhile to purchase a modest second home in Van Nuys instead of commuting from San Francisco and staying in hotels.

[18] However, she also did a number of short-lived and single season shows: Yancy Derringer, 21 Beacon Street, Johnny Midnight, The Case of the Dangerous Robin, and Mr. Garlund which only lasted seven episodes.

With no series regular or recurring roles on the horizon, Fong decided to take a chance on performing live again, this time in theatre.

The play, adapted from Moumou by Jean de Létraz, had been running steadily for five years in small Los Angeles theaters with an ever-changing cast.

Fong, as the ambitious maid "Claudine", Cliff Halle, Leslie Vallen, Brad Logan, and Don McArt completed the cast, while Richard Vath directed the action.

[29][30] Towards the end of the run, Wilkinson deliberately upstaged Fong during the latter's big scene, causing a backstage brawl that left the stage manager, who unwisely tried to intervene, with a sore jaw.

[28][31] Pajama Tops had occupied over a year of Fong's career and given her the cachet of a Broadway production, albeit one that a critic said "may set the theater back a few millenium".

[34] When Frances Chung was first signed to an MGM contract in 1945, she met actor Leslie Fong, who had just appeared in Tokyo Rose.

Frances Chung then met and married George Kim Fong, a CPA and USAAF veteran from Oakland, California.

George and Frances Fong shared an interest in Chinese ceramics; they donated their large collection to the Berkeley Art Museum in 1996.