Cheng was born and grew up in China. He attended Peking University and obtained his B.S. in chemistry. As an undergraduate, he worked in the lab of Prof. Wang Jianbo and focused on methodology based on organic electrochemistry. Cheng came to the UIUC and joined the Sarlah group in the summer of 2021, where he was working on total synthesis of biologically active natural products. In his spare time, he likes playing the Go and the Werewolves of Miller's Hollow.