Zhao was born in Zhaozhou County, Heilongjiang and moved to Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture's capital cityYanji with his family when he was still a boy. He began to play organized football in 1998 and was promoted to Yanbian FC first team squad in 2003. He was one of the fewHan Chinese in the club and promoted to China League One with the club in the 2004 league season. In December 2006, Zhao transferred to Chinese Super League side Shenyang Ginde with a fee of ¥3 million. Then he followed the club to move to Changsha in early 2007. On 4 March 2007, he made his Super League debut in the first round of the 2007 league season which Changsha Ginde lost to Dalian Shide 1–0. He remained as club's regular starter after this match and eventually made 13 league appearances in the first half of the year. However, on 1 July, he suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee when he played with China U-23 against Cameroon U-23 in South Africa, ruling him out for the rest of the season. He returned to the field in December and still acted as the regular starter in the 2008 league season. In July 2008, he suffered a recurrence of the knee injury in the U-23s' training, meaning he would be dropped from the team for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Zhao was excluded from the first team squad in the 2010 league season as Changsha Ginde finished bottom and were relegated to China League One. In February 2011, the club moved to Shenzhen as the club's name changed to Shenzhen Phoenix. The club offered a new contract to Zhao whom was still recovering from injury. On 5 May 2011, after three years out, Zhao started and played the full ninety minutes against Shenyang Dongjin in the first round of the 2011 Chinese FA Cup. The club were then bought by Chinese property developers Guangzhou R&F and moved to Guangzhou in June and won promotion back to the Super League at the first attempt. Zhao made 6 league appearances in the 2011 season. Zhao played as a bench player after Guangzhou R&F returned to the Super League. Zhao returned to Yanbian FC in February 2015. He played 21 matches in the 2015 season as Yanbian won the champions of the league and promoted to the first tier. Zhao terminated his contract with Yanbian in September 2016 after his daughter was born. In late June 2017, Zhao was transferred to R&F's Hong Kong based satellite club.
