Dr Cheung received his primary, secondary and tertiary education in Hong Kong, and served for two years as an engineering apprentice in a British machine tool manufacturing company in London, UK. He graduated with an MSc in mechanical engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1971, and a PhD from the University of Manchester in 1974 while working as a research assistant there. Having worked as a post-doctoral research fellow for a short period, he moved from England to Singapore, where he worked until 1987 when he returned to settle in Hong Kong. In 1977, he became a Chartered Engineer and a corporate member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, UK. He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, UK, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) and a Senior Member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, USA. He has served as the Chairman of HKIE's Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering division, the Chairman of HKIE's discipline advisory panel in Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering and as a member of many professional engineering committees.

Dr Cheung has many years of experience in teaching and curriculum development. He was involved in the development of several degree programmes offered by the Department. He had also participated in several programme validation and accreditation exercises, both at the University and at other universities in Hong Kong. He was also responsible for developing laboratories and other supporting infrastructure for the teaching of the courses. He has been a member of many Government committees on training and research.

Dr Cheung's earliest research interest was in the analysis of stress and strain in a loaded mechanical structure, with special emphasis on the slip line field theory. Then he turned his research interest towards the design and development of machines, in particular textile machinery. He was later interested in the applications of robotics and laser technology in manufacturing. Then, he focused more on computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), intelligent mould design and the dynamic suspension control of Automated Guided Vehicle. He has also established research links with a number of universities in China. In recent years, his research interest has shifted with the research students supervised by him. His current research interests include dynamic mechanisms, rapid prototyping, super-hard coatings of toolings and customer relationship management.