[1][2] Chan was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to parents of Chinese origin.
[3] Chan graduated from Columbia University, and later married Mary Alice Van Vleet in 1936; she died several years later.
[5] Chan opened the Chinese Junk Cafe in Los Angeles's Chinatown in the late 1930s.
[6] He and fellow actor Johnson Sing spent time designing a large replica of a Chinese pirate ship that adorned the restaurant at 733 N. Main St. (The building later burned down in a fire.
)[7][8] Chan also served as president of the neighborhood's China City Merchants' Association and as Chinatown's unofficial mayor, and helped design the look of the area.