Chuck Johnson

Chuck Johnson is an action film actor based out of Tokyo, Japan. He is the first African American to make an international name for himself in the Far East Asia’s action film industry and also the first American be trained extensively in the art of Katana Tate (Japanese theatrical swordplay).
His life in martial arts began when he started Olympic Taekwondo training at the age of 15. Within 2 ½ years, he had earned his 1st black belt, and had become the Michigan State Junior Olympic Champion in both sparring and forms for his age and weight class 6 days later.
In college in pursuit of a dream of Olympic greatness, he went to Seoul, Korea to study at Yonsei University and pursue advanced Taekwondo training. Having a love of performance and showmanship, in addition to do competition training under former Korean national champion, and Samsung Taekwondo team member Kim Sung Hoon, he also began demonstration taekwondo training under Kyung Hee University Demo Team member, Jang Inkwon, and Korean national demo team member, Suh, Sang-Oo.
While in Seoul, he was featured in both the Chosun Ilbo Newspaper, and in the Martial Arts Textbook, Korean Traditional Martial Arts, Taekwondo Philosophy and Culture.
In 2001, Chuck completed his bachelor’s degree with Honors from Michigan State University and studied at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. He also won the Hong Kong intercollegiate championship for his weight class, when he had originally only come to the tournament to watch.
During trips back to the states, he won the KTAA National Championship for sparring and forms, and was also a Gold Medalist at the State Games of America. After returning to the states, he formed the Quiet Flame Demonstration Team which coupled comical taekwondo demonstrations with motivational speaking to encourage middle school, and high school kids to chase their dreams.
Briefly after that, he moved to Tokyo, Japan, and immediately began to get work on security details for a multitude of visiting international celebrities ranging from Hollywood celebrities such as Orlando Bloom and Sylvester Stallone to Kim Hee Sun, and Son Ye Jin of Korea.
Chuck’s action career began when he was cast as a martial arts extra for the film Godzilla: Final Wars. While on set, he was introduced to action director Yuji Shimomura, and immediately began training with the stunt men of Uden Flame Works, and with the Pass Guard Action Team. He went on to have a multitude of other TV and film roles in Japan, appearing in such films as Death Trance, and the Geki Rangers: The movie, as well as participating in live action shows.
In addition to holding ranks in both Taekwondo and Capoeira, and being trained in Katana Tate, Chuck also has experience in boxing, kick-boxing, tai chi, wing chun, judo, and hapkido.
He is also currently studying Strasberg Method Acting with Shelley Mitchell.

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