Zhang was born in Changsha, Hunan, while his ancestral home was in Tanghe, Henan. When he was merely one month old, he moved with his father to Dongchuan, Yunnan. He left high school in 1971 without completing his studies, and joined the opera troupe of a performing arts group in Dongchuan. He transferred to the singing and dancing team in 1973.
In 1978, Zhang was enrolled in the acting department of the Beijing Film Academy with excellent grades. In 1980, when he was a second year student, he was selected by Hong Kong's Phoenix Studio to play Xin Dalei in Treasure Hunting in Desert (1980), which was his film debut. A year later, Zhang portrayed Xiangzi in Rickshaw Boy, a film directed by Ling Zifeng and adapted from a story by Lao She.
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