[5][6] His mother, Fei Ge, and his father, Max Zhou, are both computer scientists and worked in Silicon Valley.

When he was nine, Zhou started to be coached by Tammy Gambill[10][9] and became a member of the All Year Figure Skating Club in Riverside, California.

Zhou admires Patrick Chan, Brian Boitano, Michael Weiss, Yuzuru Hanyu, and Richard Dornbush.

Zhou underwent surgery at the UCSF Orthopedic Institute in San Francisco to get his injuries treated.

[8] Making his ISU Junior Grand Prix debut, Zhou won two silver medals at the 2015 JGP events in Bratislava, Slovakia, and Linz, Austria.

[9] He has continued to train in Colorado Springs with one of his primary coaches, Drew Meekins and Tom Zakrajsek.

Starting his season on the Junior Grand Prix series, he won silver in Yokohama, Japan, having ranked first in the short and second in the free behind South Korea's Cha Jun-hwan, and then bronze in Tallinn, Estonia.

In December, he made his senior international debut at the 2016 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb but withdrew after the short program.

[15] Zhou opened the season at the Finlandia Trophy, where he scored 6th in the short program, then moved up to a second-place finish behind China's Boyang Jin after winning the free skate.

He made his senior Grand Prix debut, having received assignments to the 2017 Cup of China and 2017 Internationaux de France.

Alongside Nathan Chen and Adam Rippon, Zhou was named to the U.S. Olympic figure skating team to Pyeongchang, South Korea.

In April 2018, Zhou announced on Instagram that he and his choreographer Joshua Farris completed a new exhibition program to A-ha's "Take On Me".

[17] At his first event of the season, the 2018 CS U.S. International Classic, Zhou placed sixth in the short, first in the free, and fourth overall.

In late November, Zhou competed at the 2018 CS Tallinn Trophy, where he won the silver medal.

[20] At the 2019 World Championships, Zhou scored a new season's best of 186.99, placing third in the free skate, and won the bronze medal.

[13] Zhou chose to attend Brown University, stating that the curriculum was flexible enough that it would be viable to both skate and study.

[23] Zhou debuted at the 2019 CS U.S. Classic, placing first in the short program but dropping to the bronze medal position after a fourth-place free skate.

[24] He withdrew from both of his Grand Prix assignments for the year, stating that they conflicted with adequate preparation for his midterm examinations.

[25] In January 2020, Zhou announced that he would take a gap year from Brown University for the following season, and would henceforth be coached by Hamada, Lee Barkell and choreographer Lori Nichol at the Granite Club in Toronto.

[30] The pandemic caused Zhou to conclude that his coaching arrangement in Toronto was no longer viable due to restrictions on international travel.

[37] While fellow American skaters Chen and Jason Brown placed first and seventh in the event, Zhou's failure to qualify for the free skate meant that the United States only qualified two men's berths for the 2022 Winter Olympics outright, with the necessity of competing for a third later in the year at the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy.

[38] After winning the Skating Club of Boston's Cranberry Cup event, Zhou was assigned as the American men's entry to the 2021 CS Nebelhorn Trophy to secure a third Olympic berth for the United States.

Zhou placed narrowly second in the short program, 3.07 points behind Uno, but had a poor free skate, singling a planned quad Lutz to open, underrotating three other jumps, and receiving quarter calls on three others.

"[42][43] Zhou's results qualified him to the Grand Prix Final, but it was subsequently canceled due to restrictions prompted by the Omicron variant.

He struggled in the free skate, making several errors on quadruple jumps and falling on his triple Axel attempt, placing fourth in that segment and narrowly third overall, 0.38 points ahead of pewter medalist Jason Brown.