Chris Meloni Shirtless Photos: His Physique, Exercise Details

Law & Order star Chris Meloni is more than just his tough-as-nails character, Elliot Stabler, in the long-running crime drama. The Emmy nominee has captured fans’ hearts with his sense of humor and shirtless photos behind the scenes of the hit NBC show.

Chris starred alongside his longtime friend and costar, Mariska Hargitay, on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for 12 seasons until he left the show in 2011. In 2021, he returned to the franchise, reprising his character in the spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime.

In August 2021, a few months after the show began airing its first season, Chris posed for a steamy photoshoot with Men’s Health. In the spread, he appeared shirtless, talked in-depth about his workout routine and even dropped down into a split for some photos. It was a whole new side of the Oz alum that viewers had not yet seen after his years starring in popular television series and films.

Chris shared that for him, exercising is “therapy, church, meditation and a kind of personal re-engagement where the brain and the body get to talk to one another.” He went on to say that he never expected to grace the cover of the magazine.

“The aspect of age comes into play as far as the cover of [the magazine] and how I feel about it,” he explained. “A friend of mine said, ‘Did you ever think in a million years you’d be on the cover of Men’s Health?’ I said, ‘Certainly not at age 60.’”

Chris has also not shied away from addressing the photo of his backside on the Law & Order set that went viral in April 2021. He explained the internet’s response to the photo during a January 2022 episode of the “Time to Walk” podcast.

“We were shooting in Brooklyn and an innocent bystander took a picture of me as I was stretching or just kind of leisurely testing out the mobility of my hunches,” he said. “But they took a shot of my rear end — my asset — and it hit the interweb and became an international sensation overnight. It traveled the globe, and I was given the moniker ‘Zaddy,’ which I believe means an elderly gentleman with a certain patina of sexiness to them.”

Keep scrolling to see Chris’ shirtless photos so far.