The brother of the Romantic poet André de Chénier, Marie-Joseph attended the Collège de Navarre, then joined the regiment of Montmorency for two years. A member of the Convention and the Council of Five Hundred, as well as the Committee of General Security and the Committee of Public Safety, he wrote patriotic songs and hymns such as the "Chant du départ" and the "Hymne à la liberté."

His tragedies, based on historical subjects, served as vehicles for his own political ideals. They include Charles IX (1789), Henri VIII (1791), and Caius Gracchus (1792). After expressing his disapproval of the violence of the Reign of Terror in works such as Fénelon (1793), his tragedies were censored. Chénier entered the Académie Française in 1803. Épître sur la calomnie (1797; “Treatise on Calumny”) was an eloquent reply to the false accusations that he conspired to bring about his brother's death.