Chester Mornay Williams was born on the 8 August 1970 in Paarl in the Western Province, South Africa. He attended Klein Nederberg School in Paarl.

He attended Craven Week for the WP League in 1988. He played for the U20 Fedsure WP in 1990 where he ended up with 63 caps.

He played winger for the South African national rugby union team, the Springboks from 1993 to 2000. His first debut game was against Argentina in Buenos Aires. Williams also played rugby for the Western Province in the Currie Cup. He is best known as the star winger of the Springbok squad that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and was nicknamed "The Black Pearl".

Williams is only 1.74 meters tall with a playing weight of 84 kilograms, a small man by rugby standards. He was the first non-white player to be included in the Springboks squad since Errol Tobias in the early 1980s.

He made his debut for the Springboks at the age of 23. Williams was on the Springboks team that won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, notably scoring a try against England in pool play.

His Boks career, hampered by knee injuries in 1996 and 1997, ended with a 23-13 win against Wales on the 26th of November 2000 in Cardiff. In total he played 27 games for the Springboks, scoring 14 tries.