Kieu Chinh began her acting career in her South Vietnam, starting with a starring role in Hồi Chuông Thiên Mụ (The Bells of Thiên Mụ Temple) (1957). Kieu Chinh soon became one of South Vietnam's best-known personalities.
In the 1960s, in addition to Vietnamese films, she also appeared in several American productions including A Yank in Viet-Nam (1964) and Operation C.I.A. (1965), the latter opposite Burt Reynolds. Kieu Chinh also produced a war epic Người Tình Không Chân Dung (Warrior, Who Are You) (1971), which later would be remastered and shown in the U.S. at the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival.
In 1975, while Kieu Chinh was on the set in Singapore, communist North Vietnamese overran Saigon. Kieu Chinh left for the U.S. where she resumed her acting career in a 1977 episode of M*A*S*H "In Love and War", written by Alan Alda and loosely based on her life story.
Kieu Chinh subsequently acted in feature films as well as TV-movies including The Children of An Lac (TV), Hamburger Hill (1987), Riot (1997), Catfish in Black Bean Sauce (1999), Face (2002), Journey From The Fall (2005), 21 (2008).
From 1989 to 1991, she had a recurring role as Triệu Âu on the ABC Vietnam War drama series China Beach.
A documentary based on her life, Kieu Chinh: A Journey Home by Patrick Perez / KTTV, won the Emmy in 1996.
At the 2003 Vietnamese International Film Festival, Kieu Chinh received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Also in 2003, at the Women's Film Festival in Turin Kieu Chinh was awarded the Special Acting Award. In 2006, the San Diego Asian Film Festival honored Kieu Chinh with the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2015, the San Francisco Film Fest, Festival of Globe honors Kieu Chinh with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to the film industry and more.
In 2009, Chinh was honored as the 2009 Woman of the Year for her work in film and community Service by State Senator Lou Correa.
In 2015, she co-produced Ride The Thunder (2015), a Fred Koster film based on the book of the same title, written by Richard Botkin.
Kieu Chinh is also active in philanthropic work. Together with Journalist Terry Anderson, she co-founded the Vietnam Children’s Fund, which has built schools in Vietnam attended by more than 25,000 students annually. Kieu Chinh and Anderson continue to serve as the Fund’s co-chair.
