Chou was born in Beaumont, Texas, to Quanli Li and Joseph Chou. Her mother played basketball for the Chinese national team before playing professionally in China. She moved to the United States in the mid-1990s with her husband when he received the opportunity to study abroad at Lamar University in Beaumont. When Chou was one week old, she stopped breathing and was rushed to a hospital, where she was revived. She was diagnosed with human respiratory syncytial virus, a condition she no longer has. After earning his master's degree, Joseph moved the family to Plano for his work. Li became a basketball instructor for kids. Chou's parents' relationship deteriorated, and they eventually separated. Raised in Plano, Chou grew up with her older sister Tingting, who was trained in basketball by their mom. As Chou grew older, she became the more talented player, while her sister took after their father and was more into academics. Chou continued training under Li, but also played on then-National Basketball Association player Jason Terry's girl's Amateur Athletic Union team from sixth through ninth grade. Terry first noticed Chou while preparing his daughter and her sixth-grade basketball team. Judging by her skills, he estimated that Chou was in high school. Terry was surprised to learn that she was only in sixth grade, and he was curious how her mom learned the NBA drills. Chou attended Plano West High, where she was a three-time all-state player. As a senior in 2016, she was named a McDonald’s All-American and was one of five finalist for the Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year award. Chou was a five-star recruit, and ESPN's HoopGurlz ranked her No. 8 in the nation in the class of 2016. Some Chinese media outlets called her "the female Jeremy Lin", likely more related to her ethnicity. Terry said her play was "not as flashy as Jeremy", but praised her fundamentals. Growing up, Chou was inspired by Lin, but she otherwise had few Asian-American basketball players as role models.
College career
Chou committed to attend Baylor University, where she and her high school rival, Lauren Cox, helped form one of the top recruiting classes in the country. As a freshman in 2016–17, Chou played in all 37 games as a reserve and averaged 4.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game as the Lady Bears reached the Elite Eight of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. She led Baylor with a 42.3 three-point field goal percentage, which ranked sixth in the Big 12 Conference. She was named Big 12 Freshman of the Week for the period ending December 12, 2016, after scoring a season-high 15 points and making a career high five 3-pointers on six attempts against Texas State. In the 2017–18 season opener, Chou scored a career-high 22 points and added eight rebounds and six assists in a 121–62 win over Lamar. On January 3, 2018, she matched her career-high of five 3-pointers after making all five of her first-half attempts en route to a game-high 17 points against Iowa State. She was a starter for the first 21 games of the season before undergoing surgery for a broken bone in her non-shooting left wrist, which had been bothering her even before then. After missing seven games, Chou returned in the regular season finale against West Virginia, entering in the final seconds with a heavy wrap on her left wrist. She played in six games as Baylor advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. She went scoreless after her return, totaling 35 minutes and shooting 0-for-8 with all but one shot from three-point range. For the season, Chou averaged 6.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals. Needing a change of scenery, she decided after the season to transfer to the University of California, Los Angeles. " kind of changed the dynamics of a lot of the relationships, and I didn’t like that kind of pressure," she said. Due to NCAA transfer rules, Chou sat out a season as a redshirt and served on the practice squad for the Bruins in 2018–19. Eligible to play in 2019–20, she was expected to boost UCLA's outside shooting after they ranked next-to-last in three-point percentage in the Pac-12 and last in three-pointers made per game. On January 24, 2020, Chou made a season-high four 3-pointers and scored 18 points in career-high 33 minutes in an 85–80 overtime win over Washington. She was a part-time starter during the season and averaged 7.6 points and 3.6 rebounds while making 31.1% of her three-pointers for UCLA, who finished 26–5 and ranked No. 10 nationally. Their season ended prematurely, however, when the 2020 NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Chou spoke out against the rise in animosity towards Asian Americans since the spread of the virus which originated in China. After flying home following the 2019–20 season, she was afraid to leave her Dallas-area home. Although she had been used to being stared at for being a Asian female, Chou said the looks were now hateful. She felt safer going out wearing clothes with UCLA on it, as she hoped to ease people's fears by showing that she was a basketball player and "not just a Chinese personneed to stay away from." Later that month, Chou posted on Twitter about her experience, which was followed by a story in the Los Angeles Times and later her first-person account on ESPN.com. She attributed the growing resentment towards Asian Americans to the use of the slang term Chinese virus, which she stated was "disrespectful and ultimately racist" and created "unnecessary xenophobia for people who look like me". Since 2015, the World Health Organization has recommended to not name infectious diseases after geographic locations due to the negative impact on countries, economies and people. According to Chou, "It takes literally no effort to call it by its correct name ."
