Tak Wing Chan is a Hongkonger born and bred. After obtaining a BSocSc degree from the University of Hong Kong, he studied at Oxford University where he obtained a MPhil and a DPhil in Sociology, under the supervision of John Goldthorpe. After his doctorate, he worked as a Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and then as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He has since taught at the University of Surrey, the University of Oxford, and the University of Warwick, before moving to UCL for his present position.