[3][4] Chowdhury spent his early childhood in Kolkata and later his family settled in East Pakistan (which later became Bangladesh).

As the general secretary of the Dhaka Medical College students' union, he held a press conference to expose the corruption at the hospital.

After a turbulent student life, he finished his MBBS degree in 1964 and left for the UK for post-graduate studies in general and vascular surgery.

The idea was introduced in a concept paper titled, 'Basic Health Care in Rural Bangladesh' in Dhaka.

Gonoshasthaya Kendra has been very successful in providing family planning services, and lowering maternal and infant mortality rates.

However, Chowdhury believed that public health is a state matter, it can never be left to the private sector.

[8] Chowdhury gained prominence by being the driving force in formulating the Bangladesh National Drug Policy in 1982.

[citation needed] In 2015, the International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up to try perpetrators of war crimes committed during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, charged Chowdhury on charge of contempt of court and sentenced him to "one hour" of 'confinement in the dock inside the courtroom" and fined him 5000 taka.