diff --git a/tools/check_format.py b/tools/check_format.py
index 5ebf90bb6d010..ecaebdd5f47e8 100755
--- a/tools/check_format.py
+++ b/tools/check_format.py
@@ -177,8 +177,7 @@ def checkFormatVisitor(arg, dir_name, names):
   if os.path.isfile(target_path):
     checkFormat("./" + target_path)
   else:
-    os.chdir(target_path)
-    os.path.walk(".", checkFormatVisitor, None)
+    os.path.walk(target_path, checkFormatVisitor, None)
 
   if found_error:
     print "ERROR: check format failed. run 'tools/check_format.py fix'"