Son of former athletes, father was once an Asian record holder in the pole vault, mother a high jumper,[3] Zhang began to compete on the national track and field circuit as a teenager in 2004, setting bests of 10.80 seconds for the 100 metres and 21.53 seconds for the 200 metres.

[7] He ran a 100 m personal best of 10.27 seconds at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and closed the year with a win at the China City Games.

[10] Zhang represented China at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, racing in the heats of the 200 m. He also competed in the 4 × 100 m relay together with Hu Kai, Wen Yongyi and Lu Bin.

[11] At the 11th Chinese National Games in 2009 he was runner-up in the 100 m behind Lu Bin and won the relay bronze medal for Beijing alongside Xing Yanan.

[13] A team of Guo Fan, Liang Jiahong, Su Bingtian and Zhang narrowly finished second to Japan in the relay.

[18] On August 10, 2013 Zhang won his preliminary heat in an equal personal best time of 10.04 matching the Chinese National Record.