He was originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He is an Eagle Scout, and was elected to the Order of the Arrow national honor society. Dr. Chen received a double-major and his medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He completed both his Internal Medicine Residency and Gastroenterology Fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also obtained a Masters of Science in Public Health. Dr. Chen finished his advanced fellowship at Case Western Reserve University under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Sivak, who is considered one of the forefathers of therapeutic endoscopy.