Josh Price, Matt Boggis and Eamon Sandwith met in music class at St. Teresa's Catholic College in Noosa, Queensland. When they were 17, in September 2016, they formed the Chats, with Price on guitar, Boggis on drums, and Sandwidth on bass and vocals. Former member Tremayne McCarthy also played bass and guitar in the original lineup.The band takes its name from the phrase "that's chat" - (Australian slang to describe something gross/disgusting/bad).

Their debut self-titled EP, recorded at another local high school, was released on 7 November 2016.Triple J described the EP as "seven joyous sky-punching tracks that combined 60s garage punk and 70s new wave punk".

Their second EP, Get This in Ya!! was released on 31 July 2017, "another thrilling seven-song slice of economic, stripped-down, early Buzzcocks-styles punk tension". It was tracked/recorded at Eleven PM Studios in Nambour, Queensland, Australia, by Finn Wegener and Michael Currie on 24 June 2017. Former member, Tremayne McCarthy, actually played bass on the "Smoko" track and spoke the line "Is it Smoko?". Michael Currie was the producer and decided that the best way to record the band was all in the same room together live. Only very minimal overdubbing was done. It was then mixed and mastered by Michael Currie at his Polished Turd Studios in Brisbane, Australia. The music video for the track "Smoko", filmed with no budget at a building site, was directed by Matisse Langbein, who also did the cover art for the EP, and was released on the 3rd of October, quickly becoming a viral hit and drawing attention from popular rock musicians Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, Iggy Pop, Alex Turner.Triple J argued that the song "was an instant classic of a youth anthem on a par with 'You Really Got Me', 'My Generation' or 'Teenage Kicks'".

On 3 July 2018, the Chats released the single "Do What I Want", announced to be included in their forthcoming studio album.

The band signed a global deal with Universal Music Publishing Australia on 19 March 2019, and founded their own label, Bargain Bin Records. On 21 March, the Chats released "Pub Feed" alongside an accompanying music video. Throughout July, the band toured the United States.On 26 July, they released the single "Identity Theft" alongside an accompanying music video, which contains references to the video game Guitar Hero.The band performed at the UK Reading and Leeds Festivals in August 2019. In October 2019, the Chats commenced an Australian national tour. The band performed a headlining tour in the UK during December 2019. When asked about the then-untitled High Risk Behaviour during an interview at the Reading Festival, Sandwith revealed that the songs were already recorded: "We're gonna call it done...we're not perfectionists or anything.".

In late December 2019, Sandwith posted a song criticizing Prime Minister Scott Morrison for his perceived apathy and carelessness towards the 2019-20 bushfire crisis to Instagram, titled 'I Hope Scott's House Burns Down'; according to Pedestrian.tv, the song is being used to aid fundraising efforts for numerous volunteer firefighter groups. The band debuted the song "The Clap" on 17 January 2020 and revealed the name of their debut studio album, High Risk Behaviour, as well as a release date of 27 March 2020. Weeks before its release, the band released a music video for the album track "Dine & Dash".

On 8 November 2020, the band released their next single, "AC/DC CD", a tribute to the Australian band AC/DC. Guitarist Josh "Pricey" Price was not featured in the song’s music video, while potential new member Josh Hardy of Australian band the Unknowns was, leading to online speculation of his departure from the band. In December 2020, the band officially confirmed Price’s departure and announced Hardy as his replacement.

The band coined the term "shed rock" to describe their sound, and their self-contained approach has been likened to that of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard.They cited Australian bands Cosmic Psychos, Dune Rats and Eddy Current Suppression Ring as major influences.

On 10 September 2021, the band released a cover of Metallica’s “Holier Than Thou” for the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist.