Relying on his book smarts, Chen made smooth progress in his studies, and after graduating from the electrical engineering department at MIT, he and several of his classmates formed a computer technology company. Then he entered graduate school at New York University, earning a doctorate in applied math.
憑著天資聰穎，陳履安的留學過程相當順利，麻省理工電機系畢業後，還曾和幾個同學合組了一家電腦科技公司，後來又進入紐約大學研究所，拿到應用數學博士學位。