Lam was born at Ping Chau village at Guicheng Subdistrict, Nanhai District of Foshan in Guangdong on 27 February 1910.

At a young age he was orphaned and was adopted by his uncle Lam Sai-wing (林世榮), a disciple of the famous Hung Ga martial artist Wong Fei-hung.

Lam Cho was trained in Hung Ga by Sai-wing at the age of 6 and also practiced in Traditional Chinese medicine Dit Da.

During the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, civil disorder among the people broke out in the streets and Lam stepped in to maintain peace.

As well as his adopted son Tang, Lam's well-known senior students who eventually went overseas to promote Hung Ga were Kwong Tit Fu (鄺鐵夫; died 1999, Boston), Y.C.

In January 2008, Lam was invited to attend the Wong Fei-hung's 160th birthday anniversary commemorative ceremony in Nanhai as Hung Ga's most senior representative.

[8] Soon after his 100th lunar birthday in March 2010, Lam suffered a stroke and was taken to Hong Kong Baptist Hospital at Kowloon Tong.

His training school and Dit Da clinic in Mong Kok had been taken over by his third son Simon Lam and youngest daughter respectively.