I'm curious to know...I have a friend that I golf with. He doesn't like to blast the ball out of the sand, so he just chips it. I was wondering, if he tries to chip it and accidently hits the sand first, then the ball, would there be a penalty?

No penalty. No different than a blast shot that hits the sand first.

It depends on when he hit the sand. If he hits the sand on his backswing, then there is a penalty (2 strokes). If he hits it on the forward swing, then no problem.