Martial arts action actor Chuck Johnson finds niche in Japan

By Steve Trautlein

Where are you from, and what brought you to Japan?

I’m from Michigan — I spent the first part of my life in Detroit, and the second part in an upper-middle-class suburb called Okemos. That move was my first experience with culture shock! I started Olympic taekwondo when I was 15, and I took the gold in my very first tournament. Two-and-a-half years later, I was the Michigan State Junior Olympic Champion for both sparring and forms, winning the gold medal in both six days after receiving my black belt.

When I was 20, I had big dreams of going to the Olympics, so I started traveling back and forth to Korea to train. After three years, I had won one national championship in the States. But I decided that that path simply wasn’t for me. I came to Japan to find a new path.

Which was a harder culture shock for you: going from the murder capital of America to a cushy upper-middle-class suburb, or going from the West to the East?

Korea wasn’t so difficult for me to adapt to because I’d been around Koreans since I was a teen, and culturally, the Koreans share a myriad of elements with African-Americans: they both have a strong Christian social base, community-first orientation, super-direct communication patterns, etc. But Japan was a whole ‘nother ballgame. It took me a long time to get used to working here.

What kind of martial arts do you do now?

My base is Olympic taekwondo, but I’ve been studying capoeira and katana tate for two years. I also have experience in judo, kendo, hapkido, tai chi, kickboxing and boxing.

Tell us about your upcoming projects.

I just finished a live action show with the Pass Guard Action Team, and we have another one coming up in around October. Beyond that, I’ve been cast as one of the main characters in a post-apocalyptic Japanese samurai movie that starts filming next year, and will be shot in Thailand. I’ll be doing sword action and free hand action, and I’ll have Japanese speaking lines, so most of my efforts for the remainder of this year are going towards preparing for that role and promoting myself in Korea and China.

What do you like to do in your downtime?

Rest. I train 4-5 days a week, so usually I’m sore all the time. When I’m not resting, I spend my time working on Phat English, a system I developed while working as an pronunciation coach. It uses specially designed hip-hop music to teach American English Phonetics. When I’m not doing that, I’m studying other languages myself — in particular, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese.

For more information, see www.chuck-n-action.com and www.phatenglish.com. This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).

Latest 15 of 28 Total Comments Show All

ExPrinceska at 09:31 PM JST - 27th August

He is very flexible too. It is amazing that he combines power and flexibility, usually very flexible people (in the legs) lack the power for the martial arts.
pathat at 09:43 PM JST - 27th August

"Chuck who?"

Teacher Page:

http://www.humbird.co.jp/instructors.html
franknbeans at 09:59 PM JST - 27th August

Apparently he isn't as good as he thinks he is, or he wouldn't need to teach english like any other schmoe here....
akaguma at 11:39 PM JST - 27th August

you must admit it is pretty second rate to 'teach' others a language you don't have much command of yourself
TheNewZen at 05:29 AM JST - 28th August

IMO, too many people mistake acrobatic skill for Martial Arts/fighting skills. Thanks to a steady diet of MA movies over the years most are more athletic/acrobatic than showing the true stuff.

Hence why they are actors.
Good_Jorb at 06:51 AM JST - 28th August

I can see it now:

Hooked on Hip-Hop worked for me, desu YO!
TheguyNextdoor at 08:41 AM JST - 28th August

LOL Jorb
JeromeInJapan at 09:27 AM JST - 28th August

Yea... there is like 3 articles on him all writen the same way... 1 youtube video with like 3 comments... and no proof of his olympic gold. Sorry man buy yea 2.5 years?! Maybe in wack a$$ taekwondo but in karate it takes about 4 years. To me... just another brother in Japan doing his thing... ahhh it never ends.
IchyaParadise at 03:47 PM JST - 28th August

No he is a Junior Olympic Champion...jr...he is a jr. What was his name again?
rjd_jr at 07:36 PM JST - 28th August

Cool guy, wish him best of luck in his future endeavours. Don't let the jealous and bitter nobodies here rain on your parade.
lipscombe at 12:12 AM JST - 29th August

hahaha wondered where rjr had been. I'm also a teacher why would I be jealous of him? just find him a bloated ego self-decieved opportunist...but keep telling me what I think rjr
kawaiitenshi at 01:27 PM JST - 29th August

wonder if he supplied the photo and practices bad boy poses in the mirror before going to work?
helloklitty at 01:23 PM JST - 1st September

He is very flexible too. It is amazing that he combines power and flexibility, usually very flexible people (in the legs) lack the power for the martial arts.

Speed beats power in martial arts. Every martial artist knows this.
IchyaParadise at 02:05 PM JST - 3rd September

Speed beats power in martial arts. Every martial artist knows this.

I guess you never been in a real fight. You can get hit a lot of times by a fast person, but that one hitta killa will take you out.

rjr, tell me why you on his jock?
JeromeInJapan at 10:59 AM JST - 7th September

"niche in Japan?" What the hell does that mean? On few people in Japan like him? I can see why... a lot of people have niche markets they target to in Japan... dumb people who believe all black people are Michael Jordan.