Chewbacca the Wookiee who charmed us all by his dedication and ability to sway the desicions of his friend Han Solo, was 200 years old during the time of A New Hope. His father Attichitcuk was referred to by the Wookiee tribe as "Itchy".
Chewie had a way with mechanics at an early age, and his best friend was Salporin. Chewie's favourite game is holochess (he can be seen playing with R2-D2 while Luke is training with his lightsaber in the Millennium Falcon in A New Hope).
He left his homeworld Kashyyk (the homeworld of the Wookiees) at age 50 to explore the galaxy. He travelled 140 years until he was captured by slave traders (he killed five of them with his bare Wookiee hands) and was subdued. He was auctioned off to the GALACTIC EMPIRE. Chewie had no idea of the political turmoil in the galaxy until he had been captured. Wookiees could not travel the free space lines, they were to be captured and enslaved.
At an Imperial hard labour camp, and Imperial officer named Han Solo rescued Chewbacca from a whipping. He was discarded from the Empire for his service to Chewbacca.
From then on, Chewie followed the space cowboy everywhere. This annoyed Han until Solo understood that the Wookiee had a life debt to him for saving his life. Han came to except this.
During the trilogy, Chewie becomes good friends with Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, and does a great many deeds. In A New Hope, he convinces Han Solo to go back to help Luke Skywalker in his Death Star run (or so we assume, as it is never explained to us), and in The Empire Strikes Back, he mounts a mission to rescue Han from the clutches of the ganglord Jabba the Hutt.
During Return Of The Jedi, he is part of the command crew for the Shuttle Tiderian, and helps the princess and Solo disarm the second Death Star's Shield Generator so an attack can be made.
