diff --git a/client/src/components/ChooserWidget/index.js b/client/src/components/ChooserWidget/index.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3757306009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/src/components/ChooserWidget/index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+import $ from 'jquery';
+
+import { chooserModalOnloadHandlers } from '../../includes/chooserModal';
+
+export class Chooser {
+  modalOnloadHandlers = chooserModalOnloadHandlers;
+
+  constructor(id) {
+    this.chooserElement = $('#' + id + '-chooser');
+    this.titleElement = this.chooserElement.find('.title');
+    this.input = $('#' + id);
+    this.editLink = this.chooserElement.find('.edit-link');
+    this.chooserBaseUrl = this.chooserElement.data('chooserUrl');
+
+    this.state = this.getStateFromHtml();
+
+    this.chooserElement.find('.action-choose').on('click', () => {
+      this.openChooserModal();
+    });
+    this.chooserElement.find('.action-clear').on('click', () => {
+      this.clear();
+    });
+  }
+
+  getStateFromHtml() {
+    /*
+        Construct initial state of the chooser from the rendered (static) HTML.
+        State is either null (= no item chosen) or a dict of id, title and edit_link.
+
+        The result returned from the chooser modal (see get_chosen_response_data in
+        wagtail.admin.views.generic.chooser.ChosenView) is a superset of this, and can therefore be
+        passed directly to chooser.setState.
+        */
+    if (this.input.val()) {
+      return {
+        id: this.input.val(),
+        edit_link: this.editLink.attr('href'),
+        title: this.titleElement.text(),
+      };
+    } else {
+      return null;
+    }
+  }
+
+  getState() {
+    return this.state;
+  }
+  getValue() {
+    return this.state && this.state.id;
+  }
+  setState(newState) {
+    this.state = newState;
+    if (newState) {
+      this.renderState(newState);
+    } else {
+      this.renderEmptyState();
+    }
+  }
+  clear() {
+    this.setState(null);
+  }
+  renderEmptyState() {
+    this.input.val('');
+    this.chooserElement.addClass('blank');
+  }
+  renderState(newState) {
+    this.input.val(newState.id);
+    this.titleElement.text(newState.title);
+    this.chooserElement.removeClass('blank');
+    this.editLink.attr('href', newState.edit_link);
+  }
+
+  getTextLabel(opts) {
+    if (!this.state) return null;
+    const result = this.state.title;
+    if (opts && opts.maxLength && result.length > opts.maxLength) {
+      return result.substring(0, opts.maxLength - 1) + '…';
+    }
+    return result;
+  }
+  focus() {
+    $('.action-choose', this.chooserElement).focus();
+  }
+
+  openChooserModal() {
+    // eslint-disable-next-line no-undef
+    ModalWorkflow({
+      url: this.chooserBaseUrl,
+      onload: this.modalOnloadHandlers,
+      responses: {
+        chosen: (result) => {
+          this.setState(result);
+        },
+      },
+    });
+  }
+}
diff --git a/client/src/entrypoints/admin/chooser-widget.js b/client/src/entrypoints/admin/chooser-widget.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7071f052b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/src/entrypoints/admin/chooser-widget.js
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+import { Chooser } from '../../components/ChooserWidget';
+
+window.Chooser = Chooser;
diff --git a/client/webpack.config.js b/client/webpack.config.js
index e692459ced..8df5af84e9 100644
--- a/client/webpack.config.js
+++ b/client/webpack.config.js
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ module.exports = function exports(env, argv) {
   const entrypoints = {
     'admin': [
       'chooser-modal',
+      'chooser-widget',
       'collapsible',
       'comments',
       'core',
diff --git a/wagtail/admin/widgets/chooser.py b/wagtail/admin/widgets/chooser.py
index 30161f46fc..57346925b3 100644
--- a/wagtail/admin/widgets/chooser.py
+++ b/wagtail/admin/widgets/chooser.py
@@ -225,8 +225,13 @@ class BaseChooser(widgets.Input):
         out = "{0}<script>{1}</script>".format(widget_html, js)
         return mark_safe(out)
 
-    def render_js_init(self, id_, name, value):
-        return ""
+    def render_js_init(self, id_, name, value_data):
+        return "new Chooser({0});".format(json.dumps(id_))
+
+    class Media:
+        js = [
+            "wagtailadmin/js/chooser-widget.js",
+        ]
 
 
 class AdminPageChooser(BaseChooser):