His birth year is unknown. Kumabe Chikanaga was lord of the Kumabe clan, a local warrior house based in Yamaga District of Higo Province. He built his power base at the ancestral Kumabe residence until relocating to Kumabe Castle in 1580. In 1587, when Sasa Narimasa, newly installed as lord of Higo after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyushu pacification, attempted to force through a sweeping cadastral survey, Chikanaga resisted and became the central figure of the Higo Kokujin (provincial warrior) Uprising. The revolt spread to draw in warrior houses across Higo but was ultimately suppressed by a Toyotomi punitive force; Chikanaga was driven to commit seppuku on June 20, 1588. Sasa Narimasa, held responsible for provoking the uprising, was likewise ordered by Hideyoshi to commit seppuku that same year.

A spirited local lord who defied the abrupt tightening of control by a newly arrived overlord. The fact that the uprising grew to engulf all of Higo province suggests Chikanaga commanded real trust among neighboring warrior houses.

The Higo Kokujin Uprising led to Sasa Narimasa's downfall and marked a turning point after which Higo province was reorganized under the divided rule of Kato Kiyomasa and Konishi Yukinaga. The ruins of Chikanaga's residence, Kumabe Yakata, were designated a National Historic Site in 2009, and a bronze statue of him was erected there in 2011.