BEEF Star Charles Melton is MEN’S HEALTH Spring 2026 Cover Star!

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For the past few years, Charles Melton’s career has been simmering. Now, it’s getting red hot. In Todd Haynes’s 2023 psychological drama MAY DECEMBER, he delivered a layered performance that distinguished him even among powerhouse costars Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. For 2025’s WARFARE, he and a small army of Internet boyfriends—including Will Poulter, Joseph Quinn, and Kit Connor—went through an immersive boot camp to embody directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s vérité style depiction of military combat. Now, in season 2 of Lee Sung Jin’s Netflix series BEEF Melton once again stands out in a stacked cast—not by being a scene-stealing presence, but instead by playing to “the nuances that you can’t explain but you can see.” Melton may not have chased movie stardom via the wild physical transformations or hype-gathering antics of some of his peers, but the heat of stardom is on him nonetheless. In his interview for the MEN’S HEALTH Spring issue cover story, Melton takes us inside the slow-burn rise of everyone’s new favorite leading man. 

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On his reaction to the suggestion that Austin, the character he plays in Beef, is a “himbo”: “He is fighting to be kind, and he’s in service to everyone around him….If you see someone who’s a trainer, who played sports, people are going to have their own preconceived notions. But there’s more to a—quote, unquote, like you said—himbo than you know….Is it because of me, as Charles? Because I have ‘muscles’? Then people assume I’m a himbo?”

On drawing from his mother’s mannerisms to play the role: “She has such a great physical comedy. Koreans are like”—his face moves through a montage of human extremes—“they’re very expressive without saying anything. Somehow, unconsciously, I had the freedom to do that.”

On how his sports background—running track and playing baseball, basketball, and football—helped him not only now, but while growing up in a military family ping-ponging to different bases: “Sports was the unifying theme that allowed me to assimilate and be identified.”

On pivoting from football to acting: “I was driving to football practice when I was 19, and I heard on the radio: Do you want to be a star? Do you want to be an actor or a model? And I was like, Yeah! It was like 120 degrees outside, 4 o’clock in the morning, and I was driving to practice,” he says. “Because of my sister, Patricia, we ended up going to this audition in Salina, Kansas, at this Marriott. And there’s people from all walks of life—ages 2 to 100—and I read this Twizzlers mock audition, and it was the most exciting thing.”

On why leading-man ambitions aren’t his focus: “For me, it’s just: I want to do great work, be part of something great…I’m an Eagles fan, and this past year people were shitting on the Eagles, but we were beating teams. We weren’t beating teams by 5, 10 touchdowns, but we won the game. Do you want the win or do you want the high stats for you?”

On knowing he’ll be able to be a present father even with a demanding career, but being selective about his roles:

“I think it’s hard, and I know it’s gonna get harder for me. There’s certain things where I’m like, I know what this is gonna require of me, and I don’t feel like giving that right now. Because I need more time just looking at my child fart and burp. It’s like being an athlete. You gotta enjoy the offseason.”

On the book he talks about the most: “Siddhartha. I like getting multiple copies of my favorite books and giving them away. I have no more Siddhartha copies.”

On the least scientifically backed wellness thing that he stands by: “My acupuncturist Emma is brilliant. I hurt my back and she put a needle in my wrist. I couldn’t even walk, but I was standing up straight, doing squats. It was nuts.”

The Spring 2026 issue of MEN’S HEALTH hits newsstands nationwide on April 28. 

[Photo Credit: Ture Lillegraven for Men’s Health]

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