Chal could have been something great if not for his inherent laziness - one could wonder how he ever made it out of the larval hives at all but his laziness is offset by his brilliance and his skill at manipulating others that saw him survive his larval stage and thrive in a limited fashion as part of the Neimoidian Government bureaucracy.
He initially employed his talents at the behest of his superiors, gathering information on their colleagues for their internal power plays but soon saw opportunities to make money for his own benefit. He set up multiple false profiles on scores of Holonet forums, often as different races, as well as setting up trojan like programs - all to gather the personal data of others... some he farmed for his own benefit and sold the rest.
Unfortunately his laziness in covering his tracks and his over ambition saw him fleeing the Neimoidian Purse Worlds just a step ahead of the Neimoidian authorities and into the core worlds. Again he set to work, following his old strategies to gather and sell data... until he happened on a cache of sensitive Sith military data. Overjoyed Chal set to work, trying to find the highest bidder only to be caught in the middle of a Republic agent - Sith agent firefight.
He was snatched by the Republic agents and after making clear to him the Sith were likely to kill him as much to silence him as much as out of revenge, Chal was brow-beaten into service for the Republic. He's now been put in the company of some Jedi Padawan, and Republic agents to start his first assignment.
Chal is brilliant, scheming, manipulative (playing on the worst aspects of a sentients nature) and greedy... those being his good points. He is also cowardly, slothful and in broad terms, untrustworthy. It is largely fear (both of the Jedi and the Sith) that keeps him in line until he finds something that helps him understand the concept of 'Loyalty' and 'Friendship'.