Chris Tschupp was born in New York, and proudly raised in Toms River, New Jersey. His love of skating began at a young age when his grandmother brought him to skate at a local pond in Ramsey. Shortly after, a family friend introduced him to hockey, and he was off running (on ice). He made his first travel team as a Mite. Hockey became his passion, and he pursued it fiercely. Chris was talented, dedicated, hard-working, and played in several organizations for many years including Bricktown, New Jersey, the Philadelphia Little Flyers, Toms River High School East, Trinity-Pawling Prep School, the University of Notre Dame, and the ECHL. His dedication, diligence, and dream of playing hockey professionally was spotlighted in 1990, when he was selected as the 125th Overall Pick in the NHL Draft by the late Stanley Cup Champions, the Calgary Flames!
Life continued to unfold serendipitously for Chris as circumstantially, a pivot from professional hockey would land him a chance New York City encounter with Calvin Klein, who invited him to model in his campaign alongside Kate Moss. The next chapter of his eventful life involved modeling around the world for the likes of Versace, Armani, Ralph Lauren, and a plethora of loved fashion icons with appearances in Vogue.
Hockey and storytelling have always been a connecting force and constant inspiration in Chris’ life. He recognized this outlet; represented in the art of expression through fashion, that later lead him to his acting debut in Sex and the City, and naturally evolved into other roles and opportunities in film and TV. Chris continued to creatively weave his life experiences including hockey into his writing—screenplays and TV shows of which he was developing when he began to notice symptoms of what he would later come to know as a devastating diagnosis of ALS, with a shocking prognosis of 2-5 years to live.
Now years into ALS since his first visible symptoms in 2018, a myriad of emotions and experience of layers of immeasurable physical suffering, destined Chris to the ultimate storytelling space—a culmination of his life’s colorful expression channeled through his fine art paintings… An eternal gift to the world that connects us all in awareness and love.
