Maggie Cheung was born on September 20, 1964, in Hong Kong, and moved at the age of eight with her family to England. After finishing secondary school, she returned to Hong Kong, where she began modeling and appearing in commercials. In 1983 she participated in the Ms. Hong Kong pageant, winning first runner-up, which proved not to be a detriment since she went on to become a star of both Hong Kong television and film.



Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1997. Spokesmodel of Hermes. Clean (2004/I) was turning point in her career. Before this film was made, she was only offered the roles of beautiful Asian women in Western films. The first Chinese actress ever to win the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival (1992 - for Yuen Ling-yuk) and Cannes Film Festival (2004 - for Clean) In Hong Kong, she has been handed every role she has played since she was 18 without an audition. Was offered a role in X2 (2003) but turned it down because "If I start making films like that, they won't be proud. I'd feel like I was cheating. And I don't want half the world, we have 1.3 billion people in China, to know I'm cheating. That matters to me. I have more pride than that." Grew up in Bromley, Kent, when she lived in the UK. She and Tony Leung Chiu Wai made 7 movies together: 2046 (2004), A Fei zheng chuan (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Fa yeung nin wa (2000), Haomen yeyan (1991), Se diu ying hung ji dung sing sai jau (1993), and Ying xiong (2002). They also starred together in a short-lived tv-series: _"Sun sap si hing" (1984)_. She was a finalist to star in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). Although an icon of Asian cinema, she is actually a European with extended residence in Hong Kong. Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. Is fluent in English, French and Chinese (both Cantonese and Mandarin, and understands Shanghainese).