After the Wars, he was separated from his family and tribe, and became a fugitive. Betrayed by a bounty hunter, Chewbacca was imprisoned by the Empire. He escaped with a young Imperial deserter named Han Solo, an encounter that marked the beginning of a long friendship.
Chewbacca with Han Solo. In 10 BBY, Chewbacca met Han, the latter who saved him from imprisonment. Chewbacca was so grateful for Han's intervention that he proclaimed a life debt to him; the two have been best friends since then, as Han gave him the nickname "Chewie".
During his tenure with Shrike, Han met Dewlannamapia, who raised him as her own and even taught him Shyriiwook, a language he'd never forget. It's important to note that Star Wars' Han Solo can understand the Wookiee language more than he can speak it.
After Solo's death, Chewbacca often served as the sole pilot of the Falcon, including piloting the ship to aid the Resistance during the Battle of Crait.
However, Han's death is — or should be — a devastating thing for Chewie in a way that is never explained, nor is the full emotional effect expressed in the movies. Han dies. Chewie fails not only his friend, but also his deep-rooted belief in the life debt he was meant to fulfill.
While a mistake in real life, the canon reason that Leia embraces Rey before Chewbacca is due to Leia seeing Rey as a lost soul and surrogate daughter, establishing a strong relationship that will grow through the sequel trilogy.
In conclusion, Chewbacca speaks Shyriiwook, a language made up of animal sounds and digital manipulation. Every phrase sounds the same because the sounds that make up the language are not possible for humans to produce.
Rey was able to learn Shyriiwook due to her interaction with offworlders on Jakku. Beaumont Kin was another human with the Resistance who knew the language and translated for others, though his skills were somewhat out of practice as of the blockade of Kashyyyk and he struggled to understand other Wookiee dialects.
In Legends, Han learned Shyriiwook from Dewlannamapia, also known as "Dewlanna", a widowed Wookiee who took him in and raised him as her adoptive son. While Dewlannamapia's life would eventually come to a tragic end, her legacy would live on in Han.
The ancient smuggler queen was eager to see her boyfriend Chewbacca – and curious what favor Han needed this time. When Han asked her for help getting BB-8 to the Resistance, Maz said the journey wasn't hers to take – it was Han who had to return to Leia Organa after their long years apart.
In A New Hope, when Chewie meets Kenobi, Chewie knows he is a Jedi, but why doesn't he acknowledge him or why didn't they talk about what happened previously? Or why didn't they connect differently for the first time? Because Revenge of the Sith wasn't written yet in 1977.
As it turns out, the most shocking thing is that George Lucas confirmed at the time of it's conception that Han Solo was married to a wookie. Leonard Ripps, who co-wrote the special, explains why that couldn't become public knowledge at the time the special was being created.
As Wookiees had good relations with Yoda, they welcomed the Jedi Master and clone troopers to Kashyyyk, their homeworld. During one of the Clone Wars' final battles, Chewbacca fought against Separatist droids alongside Republic forces -- until the execution of Order 66.
Lumpawaroo was the son of Chewbacca and his wife Mallatobuck. During the Age of the Empire, the Wookiees of Kashyyyk were enslaved by the Galactic Empire. When Lumpawaroo was young, he ventured down into the dangerous depths of Kashyyyk to find wasaka berries, which even adult Wookiees were reluctant to do.
The Force Awakens visual dictionary states that during her time working for Unkar Plutt, Rey met offworlders, and she learned Shyriiwook, the language of the Wookies. It's likely that she learned it from either some Wookies or some people who knew it who were on Jakku during that time.
His answer was to create a new race called Ewoks, which is "Wookiee" with the syllables reversed and altered to resemble the name of a Native American people, the Miwok.
Rey received guidance from the voices of past Jedi, including Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, who encourage her to rise and defeat the embodiment of evil. Ahsoka Tano's voice reached Rey through the Force, suggesting she must have rejoined the rankes of the Jedi before her death.
A male Wookiee Mandalorian was the Huntmaster of the third Great Hunt during the Cold War, a time of heated tension between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. He won the third hunt, which happened during the Great Galactic War.
Kirlocca, Lowbacca, and Tyvokka are the only existing Wookiee Jedi characters (though an unnamed Wookiee in Edge of Victory: Conquest appears to be an unknown Jedi student rather than Lowbacca), as they were developed before this policy was enacted.
Since Bail Organa had C-3PO's memory wiped previously in order to prevent him from spilling the secret of Leia's parentage, it could be that this was a semi-regular occurrence for the droid given he couldn't be trusted to keep quiet about things.
