Before He Was Chuck Norris, He Was Just a Poor Kid From Oklahoma With an Absent Father

Chuck Norris once said that his autobiography begins with a single line that sums up everything: "Nothing ever came easy for me, not even being born."

He wasn't exaggerating.

Norris was born in Ryan, Oklahoma — a blue baby, as he described it — to an alcoholic father who was largely absent from his sons' lives. His mother raised Chuck (whose name was "Carlos" at the time) and his two younger brothers on her own, eventually relocating the family to Torrance, California, where Norris attended North Torrance High School.