Born in Mérida on 10 October 1931,[4] Chalboud moved to Caracas with his grandmother at age six, and was seen in the city as a "learning-disabled" "country boy".

[8] Some of his storytelling desires came from his grandmother, who was a keen reader of European literature, and enjoyed watching some French and Italian films.

[10] It is possible that he left Televisora Nacional, the official statement being "for political reasons",[10] when he was imprisoned in 1957 for five months by the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, an experience he said gave him a social conscience to do good after being tortured.

[8] He was considered, along with friends Isaac Chocrón and José Ignacio Cabrujas, to be "a prime moving force in continuing the work of César Rengifo in the development of the contemporary Venezuelan theatre".

[5] He was then named President of the ANAC in 1978, and was the Director General of the Fundación Cinemateca Nacional de Venezuela (National Foundation of Venezuelan Cinema) for two years.

[14] Alfonso Molina, in his 2002 book on the director, wrote that one cannot fully understand the socio-political culture of Venezuela without watching Chalbaud's films.

[15] A documentary about his life and work called Román en el universo de las maravillas,[16] produced by Argentinian filmmakers, was released on 17 March 2018 in Altamira, Caracas at the Rómulo Gallegos Center for Latin American Studies.

[17]< Chalbaud revealed little personal information until he was quite old, when he said that though he loved the landscape of his home city Mérida, he considered Caracas the place to grow old.

[18] Fabián Pierucci, the director of the documentary about his life, says that Chalbaud was "tireless, from his early rise until the night he is reading, writing, going to conferences, helping people".