Mark Chao was a young Chinese college student who was killed by a gangster leader named Tony Wong on his 23rd birthday who used him to fake his own death.

History

Early life

Mark was left with his mother after his father passed away. Though he was taught the traditions and myths about ghosts and the gate keeper of hell, Yama, he never believed in any of them. He studied molecular biology at Stanford University.

Murder and Meeting the Charmed Ones

On his 23rd birthday, Mark was cornered by Tony Wong's gang and killed. His spirit soon emerged and watched them burn his body. Mark went to visit psychics throughout the city, hoping to find someone who can see him and eventually found Piper and Phoebe Halliwell at the Hotel Neptune.

He took Piper to his body while trying to avoid getting captured by Yama, facing additional complications with the discovery that his body had been mistaken for Wong's.

During his stay with the Charmed Ones, he befriended Piper and asked for her help to bury his body before Yama captures him so that he could move on, also sharing some of his family's old recipes with her.

Peace at Last

When they finally succeed in confirming his body's identity, a final confrontation with Wong resulted in Wong being killed in a police stand-off, Yama taking Wong's spirit while backing off when the Charmed Ones moved to protect Mark. Although Mark had fallen in love with Piper, and she fell for him, they both acknowledged that nothing could come of this. While observing his funeral, Mark had a short conversation with Prue, Piper, and Phoebe by telling Prue to always celebrate her birthday. He then walked away and met with his deceased father, departing for the afterlife together.

Powers and Abilities

Other Powers

• Invisibility: The ability to be invisible to the naked eye. As a ghost, Mark was naturally invisible to all except witches.
• Intangibility: The ability to be intangible to solid objects. As a ghost, Mark was naturally intangible.

Notes and Trivia

• Mark is the first ghost and the first good magical being the Charmed Ones encounter.
• He is the first innocent to be saved by Piper.
• Like other ghosts in various media, Mark only passed through convenient objects, such as bikers, doors and TV sets, but not through floors and seats. It should be noted to the creators' defense though, that it would be very hard to compose scenes with ghosts that pass through everything.
• Mark is the only ghost to be warded off by a talisman.
• Mark was mentioned three times throughout the years; in "When Bad Warlocks Go Good" when Piper talked about how tired she was of falling for the wrong guy; by Phoebe and Paige in "Cat House", regarding Piper's past relationships (Phoebe mentions that he was the best of the bunch); and in "Love's a Witch", when Piper mentioned how anyone could compare to an angel and Phoebe reminded her that she also dated a warlock and a ghost.

Gallery

The Mark Chao article has a Photo Gallery.

Appearances

Mark Chao appeared in a total of 1 episode throughout the course of the series.

Charmed, Season 1
#01	"Something Wicca This Way Comes"	#09	"The Witch is Back"	#17	"That '70s Episode"
#02	"I've Got You Under My Skin"	#10	"Wicca Envy"	#18	"When Bad Warlocks Go Good"
#03	"Thank You For Not Morphing"	#11	"Feats of Clay"	#19	"Out of Sight"
#04	"Dead Man Dating"	#12	"The Wendigo"	#20	"The Power of Two"
#05	"Dream Sorcerer"	#13	"From Fear to Eternity"	#21	"Love Hurts"
#06	"The Wedding from Hell"	#14	"Secrets and Guys"	#22	"Déjà Vu All Over Again"
#07	"The Fourth Sister"	#15	"Is There a Woogy in the House?"
#08	"The Truth is Out There... and It Hurts"	#16	"Which Prue is It, Anyway?"