It was the Serb's first match since the Australian Open, where he also defeated Chardy before retiring in the quarterfinals because of the Melbourne heat.
Djokovic will next face Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic to try and reach the Marseille quarterfinals at his third attempt.
"I haven't got a lot of success on the court. But hopefully it can change this year,'' Djokovic said.
George Bastl of Switzerland and Frenchmen Michael Llodra, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Paul-Henri Mathieu also reached the second round while Feliciano Lopez of Spain, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and Mischa Zverev of Germany moved into the quarterfinals.
Djokovic jumped to a 4-1 lead in the first-set tiebreaker and held on, then made the decisive break in the third game of the second set against Chardy, who reached his first ATP final two weeks ago in Johannesburg.
Bastl, a lucky loser who replaced Richard Gasquet after the Frenchman withdrew on Monday with a right shoulder injury, upset Marc Gicquel of France 6-4, 6-3.
Llodra relied on a solid serve to oust South African qualifier Rik De Voest 7-6 (2), 6-1. The Frenchman landed 76 per cent of his first serves, hitting 11 aces.
Tsonga, the Johannesburg champion, defeated Andrey Golubev 7-6 (5), 6-2 as the 117th-ranked Kazakh failed to serve out the first set at 6-5 and was broken twice in the second.
Mathieu rallied past third-seeded compatriot Gael Monfils 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Monfils fired 26 aces and won more points than Mathieu (102 to 99), but Mathieu won the key points, converting two break points out of three, while the Rotterdam semifinalist wasted 10 chances to break.
In the second round, Lopez edged Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1) to even the score in their head-to-head matches at 2-2.
The Spanish lefty, who led his country to the Davis Cup title last year, hit 13 aces in the second set.
Youzhny, a former top-10 player, beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (2), 6-3, improving his record against Seppi to 4-0.
Zverev outlasted Arnaud Clement of France 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 despite squandering five match points.
Clement saved three match points at 5-3 in the second set to win four straight games and force a third set.
The left-handed Russian, however, broke Clement twice to lead 5-2 and have again the chance to serve for the match, clinching the victory on his sixth match point.
Djokovic beats Chardy to join last 16 of Open 13
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