Pierluigi Chicca took up fencing in his teens with the famous Circolo Scherma Fides, a fencing club founded by Beppe Nadi, father of Aldo and Nedo Nadi. After winning individual sabre gold at the 1957 World Junior Championships, Chicca was on the Italian national sabre team from 1959-69. He won team sabre silvers at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics and 1965 World Championships and team sabre bronze at the 1960 Olympics.
After finishing his sporting career, Chicca became a successful fencing coach, working as the coach of Mexican, Egyptian, Spanish, Brazilian and Italian national teams. Chicca was the coach of Italian 2000 Olympic sabre team and Brazilian 2012 Olympic sabre team. He was also a technical commissar of the Blue Swan National team after the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games until January 2002, and then became a coordinator of various training courses promoted by the Italian Fencing Federation.