On June 2, 2003, Chinen entered
Johnny & Associates as a trainee.
Daiki Arioka, who would later also debut as a member of
Hey! Say! JUMP, was also there during that time. On April 3, 2007, he began activities with the temporary group, Hey! Say! 7 starting with a public performance at a
KAT-TUN concert. On September 21, 2007, he made his debut as a member of
Hey! Say! JUMP. He was in a 2008 drama,
One-Pound Gospel, as "Yoshihiko" in Episode 3, with
Hey! Say! JUMP member
Ryosuke Yamada and their
senpai,
Kazuya Kamenashi (
KAT-TUN). In the same year, he played in the drama
Sensei wa erai! as Umeno Wataru, along with other
Hey! Say! JUMP members:
Daiki Arioka,
Ryosuke Yamada and
Yuto Nakajima. In October 2008, he was in the drama called
Scrap Teacher: Kyoshi Saisei as Yoshida Eitaro, along with the same
Hey! Say! JUMP members that played with him in
Sensei wa erai!. As a supporter of the Japanese
volleyball team for the
FIVB World Grand Prix 2009, he performed in June 2009 with
Ryosuke Yamada and
Nakayama Yuma w/ B.I.Shadow, which is composed of
Kento Nakajima,
Kikuchi Fuma,
Hokuto Matsumura and
Yugo Kochi as members of the temporary group
NYC Boys. The
"C" of NY
C boys comes from the initials of his family name
"Chinen". On March 2, 2010, a press release made by
Johnny and Associates revealed that Chinen and Yamada would become members of a second Johnny's unit,
NYC. They worked as a member of both
Hey! Say! JUMP and
NYC, which is a rarity in their talent agency.
Ryo Nishikido (and formerly Uchi Hiroki) is the only such case of a Johnny's talent officially debuting in two groups (
Kanjani8 and
NEWS), and as
NYC became an officially debuted Johnny's unit, Yamada and Chinen joined them in this unusual situation. In September 2011, he played the voice of Brainy in the Japanese-dubbed version of the film
The Smurfs. Hey! Say! JUMP's ninth single, "
Magic Power", was used as the theme song for the film. In January 2012, Chinen co-starred with his
senpai Tomohisa Yamashita in a drama called
Saiko no Jinsei no Owarikata: Ending Planner, in which he played Yamashita's younger brother. Chinen's character in the drama was a university student who was so focused on helping out a friend to the point of stealing money from his family's business.
Atsuko Maeda and
Nana Eikura joined the cast. In June 2012, It was announced that Chinen would have his first lead-role drama series based on the manga
Sprout, by Atsuko Nanba, on July 7 on NTV. ==Filmography==