The US only started to install software to use chip data in the APC kiosks at select airports a few months ago, and first equipped CBP officers' desks with similar software even fewer months ago at JFK (see this article/press release), so it might be a little early to have heard what happens when the passport chip doesn't work or the facial recognition finds a mismatch. Since they've only just begun doing this, however, and since the only places it is done are while, or prior to, talking to a human I think it is a fairly safe bet that a failure of the process will likely just signal the human you are or will be talking with to look harder at you and your travel document than they might have otherwise. If they were going to deny you entry for a non-working chip they would be telling the airlines that to give them a chance to deny you boarding for the same reason and avoid having to fly you home.

The Global Entry kiosks allow entry without talking to a human but they accept a variety of documents including chip and no-chip passports, green cards and sometimes NEXUS cards. Since they make no use of biometrics stored in the travel document (only the chip passport has any) but instead securely identify the person offering the document by comparing to centrally-stored fingerprints, they have even less reason to be concerned about a not-working chip. I in fact tried that experiment on my last entry using a GE kiosk by leaving the back cover of my passport, where I believe the chip is, inside the foil envelope I carry the passport in. The machine didn't notice.

If you want to test your chip yourself you might look for NFC tag reader software for your smart phone. I've used this and tried others. If you can read the chip that way you can be sure it is working, though a failure to read it may be telling you as much about your phone's crappy NFC hardware as it is about the chip. Note the weak bit of NFC isn't the chip itself but the physically large loop of fine wire or foil it needs as an antenna to pick up enough energy to power the chip. While this seems pretty reliable when embedded in hard plastic, as in a credit or transit card, it may fare less well in the floppy, bendable cover of a passport (whose idea was that?).

The USA only started to install software to read chip data in the APC kiosks at select airports a few months ago, and first equipped CBP officers' desks with similar software even fewer months ago at JFK (see this article/press release), so it might be a little early to have heard what happens when the passport chip doesn't work or the facial recognition finds a mismatch. I think it is a fairly safe bet that a failure of the process will likely just signal the human you are or will be talking with to look harder at you and your travel document than they might have otherwise. 

If they were going to deny you entry for a non-working chip they would be telling the airlines that to give them a chance to deny you boarding for the same reason and avoid having to fly you home.

The Global Entry kiosks allow entry without talking to a human and they accept a variety of documents including chip and no-chip passports, green cards and sometimes NEXUS cards. Since they make no use of biometrics stored in the travel document (only the chip passport has any) but instead securely identify the person offering the document by comparing to centrally-stored fingerprints, they have even fewer reasons to be concerned about a not-working chip.

I in fact tried that experiment on my last entry using a GE kiosk by leaving the back cover of my passport, where I believe the chip is, inside the foil envelope I carry the passport in. The machine didn't notice.

If you want to test your chip yourself you might look for NFC tag reader software for your smart phone. I've used this app and tried others. If you can read the chip that way you can be sure it is working, though a failure to read it may be telling you as much about your phone's crappy NFC hardware as it is about the chip. Note the weak bit of NFC isn't the chip itself but the physically large loop of fine wire or foil it needs as an antenna to pick up enough energy to power the chip. While this seems pretty reliable when embedded in hard plastic, as in a credit or transit card, it may not work as well in a bendable cover of a passport.