Channing Tatum Unwrapped...The Early Years (Part 1)

There's a great twelve page (yes I said 12 page) Channing Tatum biography on the site ModelLaunch.com that you may not have the time to read, so I thought I would give you some of the highlights broken out over a few blog entries. For all those who want to learn as much as you can about Channing here you go...

Before the Channing Tatum we now know was recklessly retrieving his soda in a Mountain Dew commercial, playing shirtless soccer in She's the Man, or making us swoon with his dance skills in Step Up, the approximately 6'1" Taurus was born Channing Matthew Tatum on April 26, 1980 in a sleepy town outside of Montgomery, Alabama, called Cullman.

In the article, Channing mentions his fond memories of the carefree summers he spent with his grandmother, Nana, and grandfather, Papa, (how cute is that?) in the country where he was always up to something. His family left Alabama when he was six to live in Mississippi where he grew up chasing rattlesnakes and alligators, fishing, playing Pop Warner football, and getting into anything else a boy could do to keep busy in the Mississippi River bayou.

Blessed with athletic ability from an early age, Channing's parents kept him involved in football, soccer, track, baseball, and marshal arts to keep their energetic child out of trouble. The self-professed flirt also says that he was easily distracted by any cute girl he came across in class.

Out of all his many activities, Channing's true love was martial arts. He loved the tournaments, the fighting, the focus, the adrenaline, and the fact that, unlike team sports, "it was completely up to me to be however great I wanted to be".

Even with a full schedule, somehow he still found time to get into a little trouble (surprise, surprise), so his dad shipped him off to private school in the ninth grade where he played football and found what he calls a "really good girl" who had the enviable pleasure of helping him with school and "trying to be good". :-)

Tune in for Part 2 where you'll learn more about Channing's plans after highschool and about the sport and the woman that helped to shape the man we know and love today.