Rachel Zen was born in Shanghai in 1951 and studied journalism in Taiwan. She worked as a journalist for two years, going to the movies every Sunday and fostering an interest in film. She later moved to Hong Kong, first working at the news department of Rediffusion Television (RTV, now ATV), but her lack of fluency in Cantonese was an obstacle to her work in news. She thus applied to be a camerawoman in the photography department. The news editor at the time thought the camera crew was too dangerous for a woman and she was sparingly used, until editor/producer Clarence Chang Ching-po gave Zen a chance to prove herself as cameraperson.