Chalker was also a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for 12 years, retiring during 1978 to write full-time.

Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake; he attended high school at the Baltimore City College.

Chalker's hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees.

He also had a great interest in ferryboats; at his fiancée's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull boat, part of the Millersburg Ferry, in the middle of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania.

He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage, from 1960 to 1971 (a finalist nominee for the 1963 Hugo Award for Best Fanzine),[2] producing ten issues.

Chalker also initiated a publishing house, Mirage Press, Ltd., for releasing nonfiction and bibliographic works concerning science fiction and fantasy.

Another example would be that the Wonderland Gambit series resembles traditional Buddhist jataka-type reincarnation stories set in a science fiction environment.

Samantha Chalker announced that Wonderland Gambit might be made into a movie, but supposedly its close resemblance to The Matrix resulted in the project being canceled.