Jozef Chen

Jozef Chen is a Taiwanese-German no-gi standout and one of the fastest-rising talents of his generation. Born on July 30, 2004, in Taipei, Taiwan, to a Taiwanese father and a South African/German mother, he spent his formative years moving across Asia—Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Shanghai. Track and field and swimming came first; martial arts followed after he discovered the UFC at 13. He began Muay Thai in Nanjing, then took his first Brazilian jiu-jitsu class in August 2018 under Guillaume Leclerc, originally aiming for MMA before committing fully to grappling.

Training far from the traditional powerhouse academies, Chen built an unusually self-directed game. He studied instructional clips with surgical focus—often just a few short segments at a time—then stress-tested each detail in live sparring. Leclerc coached him from kids’ belts through purple, while Chen also worked extensively with Dima Murovanni (BJJ Akademie, Berlin). As a purple belt he traveled to the United States to compete and first connected with B-Team in Austin, drawn by the Danaher-system lineage that had split into B-Team and New Wave.

Chen’s international breakthrough came on the ADCC Trials circuit. In 2022, with only about four years of training, he took bronze at the ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials in the under-77 kg division. The following year he delivered a signature run at the ADCC European Trials, defeating Mateusz Szczeciński, Tommy Langaker, and Oliver Taza en route to the under-77 kg title and a berth at the ADCC World Championships. Flo Grappling named him Breakthrough Athlete of the Year for 2023. Craig Jones awarded him his brown belt that same year in recognition of the Trials campaign and his technical growth at B-Team.

Rather than prioritize a single marquee title path, Chen mixed elite pro-circuit work with continued development: WNO wins, Polaris appearances, the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational (where he defeated Andy Varela before falling to Lucas Barbosa), and a high-profile ONE Championship debut against ADCC champion Tye Ruotolo at ONE Fight Night 23. On March 6, 2025, at just 20 years old and a little over six years into jiu-jitsu, Craig Jones promoted him to black belt at B-Team Headquarters in Austin. Later that year he won the ADCC Asia & Oceania Trials at under 88 kg, underscoring a well-rounded, chest-to-chest pressure-passing game and expanding competitive range.

In January 2026 Chen opened Nomadic Grappling in Shanghai, turning years of itinerant training into a home academy and online instructional platform. Teaching in English and Mandarin, he emphasizes methodical open mats, feedback-driven learning, and sustainable training culture—the coach he has said he always wanted to become. He continues to represent B-Team on the world stage while building infrastructure for grappling in a region he knows intimately.