Where "Chook" Comes From
"Chook" traces back to a general British word of endearment based on the clucking sound of farmyard fowl — the same imitative root as "chuck," "cluck," and similar words for calling chickens. It arrived in Australia with early settlers in the 19th century, first recorded in Australian English from the 1850s in the spellings "chookie" or "chucky." The "chook" form emerged around 1900 and has outlasted all the others.
The word became so thoroughly naturalised that "chook" is now the default Australian term for a live chicken, entirely distinct from "chicken" in its culinary sense. A "chook raffle" — a lottery held at pubs, RSL clubs, and community events where the prize is a frozen chicken — is a distinctly Australian institution, and "running around like a headless chook" is the standard Australian simile for frantic disorganisation.
Source: World Wide Words — "Chook: Australian slang for chicken with English origins"
"Roast chook for dinner tonight."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Used for the live bird as much as the cooked meal — "roast chook for dinner tonight" treats it just like any other everyday food word.
Backyard chicken keepers almost universally call their flock "the chooks," and keeping chooks is a classic suburban Australian pastime.
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