If you’ve ever seen the Ricky Martin’s music video for his song, She Bangs (2000), then you might remember seeing a toned male dancer gyrating around wearing a platinum Mohawk. That man was upcoming model and actor Channing Tatum. It was his first major appearance in the public eye that paid him $400 for a seven-day shoot. It also launched his career.

After the Ricky Martin video, Tatum signed on with a modeling agency in Miami . Soon he was appearing on the pages of Vogue, Citizen K, and Contents. This followed with campaigns for Nautica, Abercrombie & Fitch, Emporio Armani, Gap, Aeropostale, and American Eagle, as well as television commercials for Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and American Eagle.

In October of 2001 Tatum appeared in Tear Sheet Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful Faces.

Tatum was born on April 26, 1980, as Channing Bryan Isaac Tatum Anderson, the oldest of eight children in the small Alabama town of Cullman.

When he was six years old his family moved to Mississippi where he learned to love the outdoors. He spent his days chasing rattlesnakes and alligators, fishing, and started to learn martial arts. As he grew older he also played football, soccer, track, and baseball.

During ninth grade he started having behavioral problems so his father sent him to military school. Tatum won a football scholarship to Glenville State College in West Virginia , but soon lost interest in the sport. He turned down the scholarship when football became more of a job he had to do in order to keep the scholarship, instead of a game he loved.

Feeling disappointed in himself, Tatum returned home. For a while he went through an emotionally tough time that he credits his mother with helping him overcome. While working at jobs in construction, at an animal nursery, and clothing store, he spent his evening dancing and club hopping.

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