A center, Zhou started his professional career playing for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).

Zhou first began appearing on scouting reports when he guided China to an unlikely youth team title in Turkey at the TBF International Under-16 Tournament in 2011.

A year later at the 2012 Albert Schweitzer Tournament, a traditional testing ground for the best teenage players in international basketball, Zhou reinforced his reputation as one to watch by averaging 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 4.2 blocks in 28.2 minutes per game.

[1] In January 2014, Zhou left his boyhood team, the Liaoning Jaguars, to join the Xinjiang Flying Tigers.

Initially, it was claimed Zhou had accepted a three-year, $744,000 deal that would have made him better paid than most of the Tigers' roster at the time, and the club was forced to publicly deny those stories.

After much back and forth, Zhou's representation in China and the U.S. secured a buyout that would allow him out of his contract after the 2016–17 season for the maximum league-mandated amount permitted, which is $675,000.

[3] He made his NBA debut on 21 October 2017, playing eight minutes in the fourth quarter of the Rockets' 107–91 win over the Dallas Mavericks, posting three rebounds and one block.

[14] Zhou made his debut with the senior Chinese national team during the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.