‘Survivor 46’ preview: Jessica ‘Jess’ Chong wants to ‘do things’ her ‘own way’ [WATCH]

“Survivor 46” contestant Jessica “Jess” Chong anticipates that she’ll be seen as “a little bit on the silly side” in the game. The 37-year-old software engineer from San Francisco isn’t worried about perceptions of her career getting in the way because they’ll just think she’s “cuckoo bananas” by the way she speaks and behaves. Watch their full CBS preview interview above.

Jess moved to San Francisco “sight unseen” in a “big risk” after earning a scholarship to attend a coding boot camp there. She says she “wasn’t even sure if [she’d] like coding,” but the risk has “paid off.” She points to her “fearlessness” and “self-starterness” in that area as an asset that she can bring to the game.

SEE ‘Survivor 46’ cast photos

She says that she had never considered playing the game until she saw Gabby Pascuzzi play in “David vs. Goliath” season. She was impressed that Gabby showed you can “cry your eyes out on TV and you can still go deep in the game.” She adds her surprise that “you can be an Asian woman and not get voted out first” and so thinks “maybe there’s hope for me.” Her plan in her own performance is to “show people you can do things your own way” and you don’t need to be an “elbow [your] way to the top person.”

Don’t miss Jess compete as an original member of the Yanu tribe sporting this season’s purple buff when “Survivor 46” premieres with two-hour episodes on Wednesday, February 28 and Wednesday, March 6, followed by 90-minute episodes thereafter. The new season features 18 new players divided into three tribes and they’ll vote each other out until only one remains on Day 26 as the $1 million winner. Do you think Jess will be the newest champion?

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