It is a burrow-nesting annual breeder, laying in mid-October to mid-November (ACAP 2009). Chicks usually fledge in late April (Barbraud et al. 2009). Outside the chick-rearing period, White-chinned Petrels breeding on South Georgia travel to the Patagonian shelf to feed. White-chinned Petrels breeding on the Falkland Island (Islas Malvinas) also largely winter in the Patagonian shelf, but some migrate to waters off southern Chile (Phillips et al. 2006, Rexer-Huber et al. in litt. 2016). Satellite tracking and ring recoveries from birds on Crozet Islands show that they spend the non-breeding season off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia (Barbraud in litt. 2008), while non-breeding birds from Marion Island winter mainly off South Africa (GLS; Rexer-Huber et al. in litt. 2016). Individuals from the Kerguelen Islands also winter off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia over the Benguela Current (Péron et al. 2010b). Non-breeding White-chinned Petrels from the Auckland Islands winter off the coast of Peru, Ecuador and northern Chile (Rexer-Huber et al. in litt. 2016), while those from the Antipodes winter off Peru and Chile (Sommer et al. 2010).
The species feeds on cephalopods, crustaceans and fish (Berrow and Croxall 1999, Catard et al. 2000, Delord et al. 2010) and processing waste from fisheries or discarded longline baits. Birds range widely when searching for food resources, travelling up to 8,000 km on feeding forays in the breeding season (Berrow et al. 2000b, Catard et al. 2000, Phillips et al. 2006, Delord et al. 2010). Individuals breeding at the Crozet and Kerguelen Islands display a bimodal foraging strategy, conducting either short trips to the surrounding shelf or long trips ranging from subtropical waters in the north to Antarctic waters in the south (Catard et al. 2000). Individuals breeding at the Kerguelen Islands target the seasonal ice zone where melting sea ice is gradually broken into floes and forage almost exclusively in open water (Péron et al. 2010b). 

This species breeds on South Georgia (Georgias del Sur), Prince Edward Islands (South Africa), Crozet Islands, Kerguelen Islands (French Southern Territories), Auckland, Campbell and Antipodes Islands (New Zealand), and in small numbers in the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas). Recently revised population estimates give a global population of approximately 3 million mature individuals. This is based on estimates of 773,150 breeding pairs on South Georgia in 2007 (ACAP 2012), 23,600 breeding pairs (9,800 to 36,800) on Crozet (Barbraud et al. in litt. 2008), 186,000-297,000 pairs on the Kerguelen Islands (Barbraud et al. 2009), 186,000 (137,000–241,000) breeding pairs on the Auckland Islands and c.22,000 (15,000–29,000) breeding pairs on Campbell (Rexer-Huber et al. 2015, 2016). Between 59,000 and 91,000 pairs breed on Antipodes Island (range of two estimates; Sommer et al. 2010, 2011). At least 55 pairs breed on the Falkland Islands, on Kidney Island, New Island, Top Island and Bottom Island (Reid et al. 2007, Poncet et al. 2012). A survey in 2009 estimated the number of occupied nests to be c. 24,000 (20,000-28,000) on Marion Island and 9,000-15,000 on Prince Edward Island (Ryan et al. 2012). On Bird Island (South Georgia), the population has apparently decreased by 28% over 20 years (Berrow et al. 2000a), while in Prydz Bay (Antarctica), the number of birds at sea decreased by 86% during 1981-1993 (Woehler 1996). The species forages as far north as equatorial waters and south to the pack-ice edge off Antarctica (Berrow et al. 2000, Catard et al. 2000, Phillips et al. 2006, Rexer-Huber et al. in litt. 2016), and is distributed widely in all southern oceans (Croxall et al. 1984).