Christopher Judge - Early Life

Early Life

Christopher Judge was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He has one younger brother, Jeff Judge, also an actor. Judge harbored the desire to become an actor at an early age, studying drama in high school. "The television set was my babysitter growing up. I can remember wanting to invoke the feelings that I was getting from television—I wanted to be the one who was the catalyst for those feelings in other people. Performing was something I've always known I was going to do." He always knew that sports would be a stepping stone to an acting career. Judge was an All-L.A. City football player at Carson High School and graduated from Carson in 1982. He played for legendary Coach Gene Vollnogle.

Judge received a scholarship from the University of Oregon and played defensive back and safety for the Ducks from 1982 to 1985. He led in kickoff return yardage for 1983-84 and interceptions in 1984, and earned the Casanova Award in 1982, given to the freshman or newcomer of the year. While at Oregon, Judge was a three time All American, a Pacific-10 Conference Selection in 1984 and played in the 1985 Hula Bowl.

Judge initially considered majoring in pre-med, in the event that his acting aspirations were not successful, but he found he had trouble with the required math, and changed his major, first to psychology, and then to telecommunications and film with a minor in psychology.

Judge won a contest to host a radio show in Oregon, and in his senior year he won a regional contest to host the West Coast FOX KLSR Morning Show, an "MTV talk show type thing"; he used this experience to get an agent and move to Los Angeles.