Jimmy Chung was born in Baltimore and his wrestling journey began at the McDonogh School in Owings Mills, Maryland, where he graduated in 1982, a three-time letter winner.  He continued wrestling in college for two years, starting at Wheaton College in Illinois before transferring to Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College), graduating in 1987.

Eager to launch his professional career, Jimmy was away from the sport of wrestling for several years until he attended a couple of high school wrestling matches in 1993 to support one of the students in the Sunday School class that he and his wife, Elinore, taught.  Although he doesn’t remember the referee that called those bouts, Jimmy does recall saying to himself, “I think I can do better.”  At the next match he attended, Jimmy asked the referee how one gets into officiating and the next day, Bill Hastings from the Maryland Wrestling Officials Association called, and Jimmy joined the MWOA in 1994.

Under the tutelage from some of the top wrestling officials in the MWOA, Jimmy quickly worked his way up the ranks and soon became one of the top officials in the state, working multiple county, regional, MPSSA State and Maryland Independent State tournaments.  He held several positions during his time in the MWOA, including the assignment committee and Treasurer of the MWOA from 2001-2003 before serving as President in 2003-2004.  Jimmy also began officiating college wrestling in 1998 and was quickly noticed, working his first Division I conference championship in 2002.   During his time on the mat as a referee, Jimmy officiated a total of 14 Division I conference championships and four NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships from 2010-2013. 

After the conclusion of the 2013 wrestling season, Jimmy was hired by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) as the first Coordinator of Wrestling Officials, responsible for the recruiting, training and assigning of officials for the ACC. Over the ten-year period in this role, Jimmy built a solid template for college wrestling officials, addressing issues such as compensation, training and education which has since been replicated by multiple wrestling conferences.  Jimmy, however, boasts that his proudest accomplishment at the ACC is that his championship officials made a total of 46 appearances at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, the highest percentage of any Division I wrestling conference. 

In June of 2023, Jimmy was named the Wrestling Secretary Rules Editor and Weight Management Liaison by the NCAA.  In addition to writing and editing the rules for the NCAA Wrestling Rules Book, Jimmy serves on the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee as the sole interpreter of all playing rules, and authors the NCAA Wrestling Case Book.

Although Jimmy still considers Maryland as “home” in many ways, he and his wife of 33 years, Elinore, live in Orange County, California.  They have one son, Jacob (25), who will graduate with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy in August 2025.