He entered show business in the early 1980s, signing a contract with television station TVB. He won the 3rd annual New Talent Singing Awards in 1984. Up until the mid 90's, Dicky struggled for many years working as a low-paid actor, singer, and appeared occasionally in films. It was't until his brilliant portrayal of the Monkey King character in the 1996 TVB adaptation of the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West that his popularity began to skyrocket. A sequel to the TV adaptation was planned, but due to a contract dispute with TVB, Cheung left before production began. Benny Chan Ho Man took over the role of the Monkey King in the sequel. Cheung then went abroad to Taiwan to continue his career.
He appeared in many Taiwanese television productions since then, but none were groundbreaking. In 1999, TVB's rival station ATV acquired the Hong Kong broadcasting rights to his Taiwanese television series Young Hero Fong Sai Yuk. Cheung played Fong Sai Yuk, a character also portrayed by Jet Li in his film Fong Sai Yuk. To everyone's surprise, the show was an instant hit in Hong Kong, and managed to gain much higher ratings than TVB's own television series. Ironically enough, the TVB series showing at that time was Dragon Love, starring Benny Chan Ho Man, who replaced Cheung in the Journey to the West sequel, Journey to the West II. Other well known roles include the voicing of the character Donkey, the funny and talkative donkey from the popular Shrek films. Recently Dickey starred in his first HK martial arts movie, Champions.
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