Im unable to toggle the chunk loader on, and it starts inactive. Tried both on a server and a single player world.

chunk loader is always active, its just the renderer that's broken, the chunk its always in is loaded + radius on each side in a square is loaded.
radius of 1 means a 3x3 chunk area centered on the chunk the chunkloader is in will be loaded.
radius of 5 means a 11x11 chunk area centered on the chunk the chunkloader is in will be loaded.