Dynamical symmetry breaking in a two-field model is studied by numerically solving the coupled effective field equations. These are dissipative equations of motion that can exhibit strong chaotic dynamics. By choosing very general model parameters leading to symmetry breaking along one of the field directions, the symmetry broken vacua take the role of transitory strange attractors and the field trajectories in phase space are strongly chaotic. Chaos is quantified by means of the determination of the fractal dimension, which gives an invariant measure for chaotic behavior. Discussions concerning chaos and dissipation in the model and possible applications to related problems are given. ©2000 The American Physical Society.