[1][3] Cham was born in Panama and lives in the United States, where he started drawing PhD Comics as a graduate student at Stanford University.

[19] In 2005, Cham became a full time cartoonist and began an invited speaking tour of major universities delivering his talk titled "The Power of Procrastination".

[20] In this lecture, Cham talks about his experiences creating the comic strip and examines the sources of grad students' anxieties.

[21] In 2012, Cham wrote and produced The PHD Movie, an independent feature-length film based on his comics.

[23][24] In 2015, Cham wrote and produced The PHD Movie: Still in Grad School, a sequel to the first film, which also screened worldwide.