Born in Hong Kong and raised and educated in the United States, Tsang received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master in public administration from Harvard University.

After the handover, he served as Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology from 2003 to 2006 and as director of the Office of the Chief Executive in Donald Tsang administration from 2006 to 2007.

He continued to serve as Financial Secretary in the Leung Chun-ying administration until January 2017, when he resigned to run in the 2017 Chief Executive election.

He is founder of Esperanza (a non-profit organisation), vice chairman of Ion Pacific (a financial institution that specialises in technology investments), senior advisor of Bowtie (a virtual insurance company), host of a weekly music programme on the private Commercial Radio, and fencing coach of the secondary school La Salle College.

Tsang was born on 21 April 1951 at Maternity home in Dukes Street, Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong, his great-grandfather was from Taishan, Guangdong, who made his fortune beginning as a labourer in San Francisco.

Graduated from normal schools, Tsang Chuek-ho and his wife Li Pik-sheung planned to move to the United States, where his sister was living, through Hong Kong in the 1940s.

[1] John Tsang, the eldest child, was born as Mui Chun-wah in Hong Kong on 21 April 1951 and lived in Sai Yeung Choi Street in his childhood.

In 1999 he returned from London and assumed the office of Commissioner of Customs and Excise, appointed by then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

[7] In this role he was also Chair of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, held in Hong Kong from 13 to 18 December 2005.

[5] For his outstanding performance in the World Trade Organization, he received the praise from Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

[10] Tsang eventually backed down and carried out the Scheme $6,000 to give a HK$6,000 cash handout to all adult holders of a Hong Kong permanent identity card.

It was revealed that Tse and Tsang had forced the HK$220 million contract to be awarded to a company called Internet Professional Association (iProA).

This company was founded by Elizabeth Quat, a member of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).

[15] On 7 December 2013, Tsang was hit in the head by an egg thrown by a League of Social Democrats (LSD) protester, Derek Chan Tak-cheung, at a government forum.

[18] Tsang officially declared his candidacy on 19 January with a slogan of "Trust, Unity, Hope", after more than a month-long pending of his resignation by the central government which put his campaign in limbo.

There were reports that central government officials had given "red light" to John Tsang running in the election and had allegedly asked John Tsang not to run for more than ten times, including rumours of him being offered the deputy governor post at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in return for not joining the race.

[19] To contrast his archrival former Chief Secretary Carrie Lam who was perceived to follow Leung Chun-ying's hardline and divisive policies, Tsang described himself as a good listener who accepted different views, appealing to "all 7.35 million Hongkongers so that together we can make Hong Kong a better place.

[21] Amid the alleged pressure from the Liaison Office which actively lobbied for Carrie Lam and speculations that he was not Beijing's favoured candidate, Tsang struggled to seek nominations from the pro-Beijing electors and had to heavily rely on the Democrats.

Film director Johnnie To, Tsang's wife Lynn and his former political assistant Julian Law Wing-chung were among the six guests who spoke at the rally.

I hope the Election Committee members, who have the power to vote, would heed our call and heal the rift, and make Hong Kong the home we imagined it should be."

Tsang fought back tears as he implored supporters to carry on the dream for democracy and not to give up on Hong Kong in his concession speech.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam urged Tsang to "respect the system" like other officials to declare his employment accordingly.

Tsang revealed that he had been in touch with permanent secretary Jessie Ting Yip Yin-mei at Chief Executive Carrie Lam's office as early as mid-September regarding the television series and provided information as requested.

[32] He also joined a fintech-focused merchant bank Ion Pacific as its vice-chairman and Benefit Vantage Limited (BVL) as a chairman and investor in June 2018.