Expand<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\nDuring boot camp at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, a Hispanic fellow recruit gave Norris the name \u201cChuck,\u201d because Carlos is Charles in Spanish.<\/p>\n
According to the \u201cTogether We Serve\u201d website, Norris served in the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1962, and started studying Tang Soo Do while serving in Korea and preparing for a law-enforcement career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1961, Norris was named the \u2018All Air Force Champion\u2019 in the Lightweight Division for martial arts,\u201d according to the website. \u201cThis was a major achievement, and it helped to solidify Norris\u2019 reputation as one of the top martial artists in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n
After being honorably discharged in August 1962 with the rank of airman first class, he applied to become a Torrance police officer.<\/p>\n
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Norris, who was a first-degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and a third-degree brown belt in judo, worked as a file clerk for the defense contractor Northrop Corp. in the South Bay while moonlighting as a karate instructor.<\/p>\n
While on the Torrance Police Department waiting list, Norris taught lessons in his mom\u2019s backyard, then took out a loan to open his first karate school in Torrance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.\u00a0 He also became a top performer in the world of martial arts, racking up a record of 65-5 in competitions.<\/p>\n
He opened Chuck Norris Karate Studios at 22543 Hawthorne Blvd., on the northwest corner of Hawthorne and 226th Street. He built his business with personal appearances and karate demonstrations at civic events, service-club meetings and local schools.<\/p>\n
Teaching Tang Soo Do at first, Norris evolved his own system to create Chun Kuk Do (\u201cThe Universal Way\u201d) in the 1970s, which he branded as the Chuck Norris System in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
While his first studio thrived, he won his first world middleweight title in 1969, winning six in total, and that same year moved to Rolling Hills Estates. Norris lived there for 17 years before moving to Orange County in 1986.<\/p>\n
By November 1970, Norris had built the chain of karate studios to six, including the first one in Torrance, two in Redondo Beach as well as locations in Sherman Oaks, Lakewood and Granada Hills.<\/p>\n
The Chuck Norris Karate School got an onscreen credit in the 1975 action move \u201cDolemite,\u201d starring Rudy Ray Moore.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, Hollywood stars loved the charming, soft-spoken Norris. He was a popular instructor for celebrities and gave private lessons to such stars as Bob Barker (who broke a couple of his ribs during one workout, according to The Hollywood Reporter), Priscilla Presley and Steve McQueen.<\/p>\n
McQueen reportedly encouraged him to enter acting, which led to a bit part in \u201cThe Wrecking Crew,\u201d starring Dean Martin, in 1968.<\/p>\n
Norris\u2019 film career took when he squared off against the legendary Bruce Lee in \u201cThe Way of the Dragon\u201d in 1972. Norris died onscreen \u2014 in Rome\u2019s fabled Colosseum \u2014 but his film career was born. The low-budget film, made for $130,000, earned $130 million internationally.<\/p>\n
Many other tough guy film roles followed including \u201cBreaker! Breaker!,\u201d \u201cLone Wolf McQuade,\u201d \u201cMissing in Action,\u201d \u201cInvasion U.S.A.,\u201d \u201cThe Delta Force,\u201d and many more, before he landed the hit CBS show \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d from 1993 to 2001.<\/p>\n
Norris, meanwhile, lived for years in Orange County and owned a restaurant there.<\/p>\n
Norris, already a box-office stalwart, purchased Woody\u2019s Wharf in Newport Beach after its namesake owner sold it in the 1980s. More precisely, the late actor bought the waterfront bar and restaurant for his then-wife, Dianne. When she expressed interest in the restaurant business, Norris rewarded her with a $600,000 purchase: Woody\u2019s Wharf, he said in a 1996 interview with the New York Times.<\/p>\n
The actor helped rejuvenate the Newport Peninsula spot\u2019s popularity, even drawing in a then-unknown Belgian martial artist\u00a0 who would later become an action star in his own right, Jean-Claude Van Damme, who reportedly worked the door as a bouncer.<\/p>\n
Even after Norris was no longer attached to Woody\u2019s Wharf, his name still packed a punch. In 2013, when the restaurant went before the city\u2019s Planning Commission to obtain a dancing permit, which was previously denied, his association was said to have carried weight. \u201cIf Chuck Norris used to own the place, I have to support it,\u201d said former commissioner Kory Kramer in 2015.<\/p>\n
In honor of the late actor, Woody\u2019s Wharf will name its waterfront patio the \u201cChuck Norris patio.\u201d (The patio did not exist before his ownership).<\/p>\n
The restaurant will also introduce the Chuck Norris Salmon Bowl, which according to the current co-owner, will be \u201cbased on some of Chuck Norris\u2019s favorite foods.\u201d<\/p>\n
And at the bar, Woody\u2019s will offer the Chuck Norris Roundhouse Shot.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, Norris owned a private, rustic-style estate in North Tustin. The two-acre property, designed by architect Jack Selman, featured a main house, a guest house and a lake stocked with more than 100 koi fish.<\/p>\n
Norris sold the property to pop singer Tiffany in 2016.<\/p>\n
Staff writer Brock Keeling and columnist Sam Gnerre,, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dailybreeze.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Ray \u201cChuck\u201d Norris, the martial-arts master turned action icon who died Wednesday in Hawaii, had strong ties to the South Bay, launching his show-business career on the wave of martial arts championships and a half-dozen popular karate studios. Chuck Norris graduated North High School in Torrance in 1958. (Photo courtesy of North High School) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2339947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[453415,22691,453416,393046,22693,344421,21912,21738,22064,453417,381452,453418,354000,370771,21737,453419],"class_list":["post-2339946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-beach-cities","tag-california","tag-granada-hills","tag-lakewood","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-movies","tag-news","tag-obituaries","tag-palos-verdes-peninsula","tag-redondo-beach","tag-rolling-hills-estates","tag-sherman-oaks","tag-south-bay","tag-top-stories","tag-torrance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chuck-Norris-martial-arts-legend-and-action-film-star-had-South.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2339946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339948,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2339946\/revisions\/2339948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2339947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2339946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2339946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2339946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Chuck](\"https:\/\/wpdash.medianewsgroup.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TDB-L-NORRIS-SOCAL-0321.jpg\")
<\/a>Chuck Norris graduated North High School in Torrance in 1958. (Photo courtesy of North High School)<\/p>\n