The 19-year-old all-rounder attended boarding school in Auckland from the age of 13 and has been playing for Hong Kong since he was 16.
''It's quite hard to get away with not playing rugby [in New Zealand],'' Chapman said ahead of his team's Cricket World Cup qualifying match against the United Arab Emirates at the Queenstown Events Centre today.
During a rugby game for King's College in 2012, Chapman suffered a knee injury that saw him sidelined from the cricket pitch for the next year and a-half following an ACL reconstruction.
He seemed to accept the knee injury was a side effect of being schooled in New Zealand and said he merely sent his Hong Kong cricket coach a message informing him that he would not be able to play for a while.
''I guess coming to a rugby-mad nation, it's something that could be expected.''
This season is the first he has played since the injury and lengthy recovery.
''I missed the cricket season before this one to make sure I was fit.''
He has since ''given up rugby'' because ''there are too many injuries from rugby - I'm not big enough''.
Chapman is a year into studying for an engineering degree at the University of Auckland and plays for the Parnell cricket club when he does not have commitments with the Hong Kong team.
Providing it works around his university schedule, he plays in tournaments for the Hong Kong team a couple of times a year.
He had grown up playing with most of his team-mates, so did not consider himself a ''stranger''.
Although finishing his degree is a focus right now, he said ''I'd like to think I could give cricket a go for a couple of years and see where it takes me''.
His team had enjoyed the spell in Queenstown, he said.
''I think the Hong Kong guys have really taken a liking to New Zealand and especially Queenstown.
''In Hong Kong the grounds are quite small and in amongst buildings.''
This summer has been all about playing cricket full-time as the team played qualifying matches in November in Abu Dhabi for the Twenty20 World Cup.
Hong Kong qualified, and the tournament in Bangladesh in March will be Hong Kong's first appearance at an International Cricket Council global event in any format.
Chapman and company have also won three from three qualifiers as they seek to nab a spot in the 50-over tournament in New Zealand and Australia.
''We've done very well,'' Chapman said.
''We have just sort of continued on from our success in Abu Dhabi at the twenty20 qualifier and we've got pretty good momentum at the moment.''
