치맥 (chimaek) is fried chicken and beer, eaten together. 치 is from 치킨 (chikin), which in Korean almost always means fried chicken specifically, and 맥 is from 맥주 (maekju), beer. The combination is so common that it has its own word, its own culture, and at least one festival.
If you learn one food compound in Korean, it should probably be this one. Partly because you will hear it constantly, and partly because it is the template for a whole family of others.
Examples
오늘 치맥 어때? (oneul chimaek eottae) = how about chicken and beer tonight?
The standard invitation. Short, casual, and very hard to turn down on a summer evening.
치맥하자 (chimaekhaja) = let’s do chicken and beer
치맥 works as a verb with 하다. You do not eat 치맥, you do it.
한강에서 치맥 (hangangeseo chimaek)
Chicken and beer on the banks of the Han River in Seoul. Delivery to the park is a well-known summer activity, and 한강 치맥 is practically a phrase on its own.
치맥은 진리지 (chimaegeun jilliji) = chicken and beer is the truth
진리 is truth in the philosophical sense. Used jokingly for anything that is obviously, permanently right.
The family of 맥 words
Once you see the pattern, you will find it everywhere. 맥 for beer attaches to whatever the beer is drunk with.
피맥 (pimaek) is pizza and beer. Common enough to have its own restaurants.
소맥 (somaek) is different. It is not a food pairing but a drink: soju mixed into beer. It is extremely common at Korean drinking occasions and the mixing ratio is a source of strong opinions.
Other combinations get coined on the spot. You can attach 맥 to almost anything and be understood, though only a few have stuck.
Chicken vocabulary worth knowing
치맥 opens up a corner of the language about fried chicken that Korean speakers treat with mock seriousness.
반반 (banban) means half and half: usually half plain fried, half coated in sweet spicy sauce. Ordering 반반 avoids a decision.
후라이드 (huraideu) is plain fried chicken. 양념 (yangnyeom) is the sauced kind. The spelling 후라이드 instead of the standard 프라이드 is what you will see on menus.
치느님 (chineunim) joins 치킨 to 하느님, God. Chicken as a deity. Pure affectionate exaggeration.
1인 1닭 (irin ildak) is one chicken per person. A boast, a rule, or a warning, depending on the group.
Why it is so tied to Korea
Fried chicken and beer exist everywhere, so it is fair to ask why the pairing has such a strong identity in Korea. The short answer is that Korean fried chicken shops are extremely common, delivery culture made it effortless, and the combination became the default for watching sports, especially during big football tournaments. The city of Daegu runs an annual summer chimaek festival built around exactly this.
By now the word has crossed into English-language coverage of Korean food, often left untranslated.
Where it goes
치맥 is casual but not rude. You can suggest 치맥 to friends, to colleagues, and in many workplaces even as an informal team dinner. Restaurant signs and delivery apps use it freely.
In formal writing you would say 치킨과 맥주. In speech, there is almost no situation where 치맥 sounds wrong except one where food and drink are not the topic.
One thing I am unsure about
I do not know when 치맥 went from a casual clipping to a fixed word. I have seen claims that it spread around big football tournaments in the 2000s, which is plausible, but I cannot confirm the timeline, and I would treat any precise origin story with caution.