diff --git a/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-chain.c b/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-chain.c
index 1b4cb3e5cec9..084c6927b735 100644
--- a/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-chain.c
+++ b/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence-chain.c
@@ -254,5 +254,14 @@ void dma_fence_chain_init(struct dma_fence_chain *chain,
 
 	dma_fence_init(&chain->base, &dma_fence_chain_ops,
 		       &chain->lock, context, seqno);
+
+	/*
+	 * Chaining dma_fence_chain container together is only allowed through
+	 * the prev fence and not through the contained fence.
+	 *
+	 * The correct way of handling this is to flatten out the fence
+	 * structure into a dma_fence_array by the caller instead.
+	 */
+	WARN_ON(dma_fence_is_chain(fence));
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(dma_fence_chain_init);