He quietly chops up a tree! (5)
I believe the answer is:
peter
'he' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'quietly chops up a tree' is the wordplay.
'quietly' becomes 'p' (p for piano and quiet).
'chops up' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'chopped up' mean this).
'tree' is an anagram of 'eter'.
'p'+'eter'='PETER'
(Other definitions for peter that I've seen before include "Sir - - Ustinov" , "' - - Pan' by Barrie" , "Dwindle away to nothing" , "Cephas" , "One of Jesus' disciples" .)