Born in Ethiopia to South Sudanese parents, Jiath moved to Australia when he was six years old.[2] Living in the town of Morwell he played his junior football at the Morwell Youth Club. Changkuoth then went on to play senior football at the Morwell Tigers Football Club. Due to his name being quite hard for others to pronounce Jiath adopted the nickname "CJ" to make it easier for people to address him. He completed high school while boarding at Xavier College in Melbourne.[3] During his time at Xavier, he forged close friendships with future AFL players Laitham Vandermeer and Bailey Smith.[4]
AFL Career
Known as CJ, Jiath was selected as a 2017 category B rookie. He had a delayed start to the 2018 season when he suffered a groin injury during the pre-season. Jiath made his debut for Box Hill mid year he showed good signs on the half back line. Jiath made his debut for Hawthorn in the snow for their round 21, 2019 game against Greater Western Sydney.[5] He ended up playing 2 games during the 2019 season. In the middle of the 2020 season, Jiath was upgraded to the senior list following changes to the rookie promotion rules.[6]
The 2021 season ended up being a breakout year for Jiath as he grew with skill and confidence. Nearly averaging 20+ disposals for all 16 games he played in. Jiath's season was cut short due to a PCL injury which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.
His younger brother Tew Jiath debuted for Collingwood in 2024.
^The 2020 season was played with 17 home-and-away matches per team (down from 22) and 16-minute quarters with time on (down from 20-minute quarters with time on) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.