He grew up in Hong Kong, where he attended primary school in Kowloon Tong and spent two years in St. Paul's College.

[9] At St. Vincent's Hospital, Chang worked with surgeon Harry Windsor, who had performed Australia's first heart transplant in 1968.

On 8 April 1984, a team of doctors, led by Chang, operated on 14-year-old Fiona Coote, who became Australia's youngest heart transplant patient.

[15] In 1980, he met Frank Tamru, who acted as a marketing and sales specialist, while he worked for Shiley Laboratories in Singapore.

Together with engineers Richard Martin and Brij Gupta, Chang and Tamru founded Pacific Biomedical Enterprises Ltd., which is headquartered in Singapore and set up facilities to develop mechanical and tissue heart valves, called St. Vincent's Heart Valves, in Guangzhou and Sydney.

[3][18] Two Malaysian men, Chew Seng (Ah Sung) Liew and Choon Tee (Phillip) Lim,[19] picked Chang at random from a magazine featuring Asians who had "made it good" in Australia.

Police investigators initially suspected the involvement of Triad syndicates but later concluded the killing was an amateur act.

In his ruling, Supreme Court Judge John Slattery stated, "It was an absurd, improbable plan, always doomed to failure".

Following a public outcry and objection by the New South Wales Corrective Services Minister, John Robertson, his release was put on hold, pending another parole hearing.

In his parole hearing, he made a broad apology for the crime and stated that he believed that his long term in prison had had a good effect.

[25] There was a small objection from NSW Attorney-General Greg Smith; however, this was retracted, and Liew was released from prison on 12 October 2012 and was met by immigration officers.

[3] He was cremated and his ashes were buried under a memorial plaque at Green Park, Darlinghurst, opposite St Vincent's Hospital.

[4] In April 2012, Australia Post released a commemorative postcard and postage stamp featuring a portrait of Dr Chang.

[33] Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark officially opened the building and declared that Chang "was an original thinker and saw the need for research and the development of heart assist devices and, not least, he is known for his legendary caring for his patients and their families".

He was the on-call emergency physician at St. Anthony's Hospital in North Cheam, London, where Ann took herself after being taken unwell at a party.

[8] He restored a 1950s MG TF, and enjoyed the opportunity to vigorously drive many cars, including his 1982 Citroën CX Prestige and several Porsches.