This came up the other day as I was playing a game. Dark side has a force choke in hand and Vader on the table during the Light sides deploy phase. Light side has no protectors on the table and plays Han, then intends to place Obi-wan's spirit on him immediately afterwards. Can the Dark side play the choke in between the time Han hits the table and Obi-wans spirit is placed on it? With vader's reaction this would kill Han before he was protected by Spirit, correct?

Yes. Your opponent's action is deploying Han. It is your turn for an action, such as Choke, before your opponent gets another action (playing Spirit).

Usually you would 'pass' and he could play Spirit, and then another card, etc., but this time you have an action and it is your turn to play it.

ok, we thought so and played it that way, but just wanted to make sure.

On OCTGN, I prep "Action" in chat when I think this might happen, then hit enter if the situation comes up. IRL it should always go reveal the card you want to play, focus resources- that allows time for an action from the oponent and is technically how the phase should work. In theory if there was an interrupt that happened at the right time you could destroy a resource generating card after a card was revealed but before it was payed for and prevent it from being played. I don't think this can happen with the available cards though.