But education was highly prized by Chiem's family, an opinion reinforced by their traumatic escape from their home country.
"My father had a strong mindset about never taking anything for granted, and my parents always said the one thing no one could ever take from you was your education," Chiem said.
"Even at nine that gave me a very strong mindset, and I was determined to make a contribution."
That strong focus on education, coupled with his earlier trauma, pushed a young Chiem to excel in his studies and decide on a career in medicine to the delight of his parents.
But at the age of 13, something happened that threw the entire trajectory of his life off course — for good.
His sister had heard on the radio that a new Australian drama series was looking for an Asian boy aged around 13 or 14.
She jokingly suggested he apply — and that night, as he lay in bed thinking about the opportunity, two words came to his mind — why not?
He ended up landing the starring role on Butterfly Island, becoming the first Asian-Australian to be given a lead role on mainstream television and appearing on TV screens around the world.
From there, he was written into the scripts of several iconic Aussie series, including Sons and Daughters and A Country Practice.
He blitzed his HSC — and finally broke the news to his parents that he'd never be a doctor, instead opting to study acting and filmmaking.
But during his first day at the Australian Film Television and Radio School, Chiem had an "epiphany" after the school's head explained to the eager new students that while millions of people had talent, actually learning the craft of acting would help lift that talent to greatness.
While mulling over those words, Chiem wondered what would happen if the same principle was applied to education.
He was fascinated by the idea there could be another way of teaching besides rote learning and mimicking, instead helping children to understand the "art and craft" of how to learn and engaging their mindsets at the same time.
"While I was doing well at school, I was also quite curious why so many students did not enjoy it and did not do so well — it wasn't because they weren't intelligent but because it just didn't engage them," he said.
In 1998, he founded MindChamps in Sydney — a groundbreaking early learning educational organisation based on strategies devised from research in neuroscience, psychology, education and theatre.
In 2008, the program launched in its first preschool, and now the approach is being adopted around the world, as MindChamps has grown into an A$18 million ($18.7m) company.
It opened its first Australian centre in late 2017, and since then, another 11 MindChamps centres across NSW have been launched.
The company plans to expand to all states and territories in Australia through a combined acquisition and franchise model.
Chiem has also written seven books over the years, including the best-selling, critically-acclaimed novel Only the Heart, which spent many years on the NSW HSC curriculum.
