Chin was born in Jakarta, Indonesia to Chinese parents[2] and grew up in Singapore, where her media career began in television and radio in 1968.

[3] Chin migrated to Australia in 1980 where she began working for SBS TV as a translator for Chinese language films.

[7] Chin has had many roles throughout her career, including news reading, research, reporting, interviews, selecting and programming music, voice-overs for commercials, and producing in-flight programmes for international airlines.

Chin has also starred in a minor role as a newsreader in the independent Australian movie Resistance by Hugh Keays-Byrne.

She gave the "all-important" twelve points to the eventual winner, Sweden's Måns Zelmerlöw and his song "Heroes".

On 6 August 2015, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that the tweets posted on Chin's official Twitter account were ghostwritten by comedian Chris Leben, head comedy writer for The Feed.