If you’ve spent any time watching the Shakespearean tragedy of a biker gang known as SAMCRO, you know the face. The blond hair, the swaggering walk that looked like he was constantly stepping over an invisible puddle, and those white Nike Air Force 1s that somehow stayed clean in a world of grease and blood.
Charlie Hunnam is the man who plays Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy. Honestly, for many fans, he isn't just the actor; he is the character.
It’s been over a decade since the series finale aired in 2014, yet if you see Hunnam in a grocery store today, you’re probably still half-expecting him to pull a KA-BAR knife out of his waistband. But the story of how a kid from Newcastle, England, ended up playing a California outlaw is weirder than most people realize.
The Scouser Who Fooled Everyone
One of the funniest things about who plays Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy is that Charlie Hunnam is about as far from a California biker as you can get. He’s British. Specifically, he’s from Newcastle upon Tyne.
When he first started out, he was this skinny kid in Queer as Folk and then a lead in the cult classic Green Street Hooligans. If you go back and watch Green Street, his Cockney accent is... well, it’s a choice. Critics actually destroyed him for it. He’s been pretty open about the fact that the reviews were so brutal he stopped reading his own press for twenty years.
But when Kurt Sutter was casting Sons of Anarchy, he saw something in Hunnam. He saw a guy who could look vulnerable enough to cry over a dead wife but scary enough to put a bullet in a rival’s head.
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Why the walk?
You know that specific Jax Teller strut? The one where his arms kind of swing wide and he looks like he’s carrying invisible suitcases? That wasn't just Hunnam trying to look tough.
He actually spent weeks in Oakland hanging out with a real motorcycle club before filming started. He met a 22-year-old "heir apparent" to a club—a kid who was basically the real-life Jax Teller. That kid wore the same jeans, the same shoes, and walked with that exact same heavy-set swagger.
Tragically, that young man was killed just a week after Hunnam left Oakland. Charlie ended up inheriting the kid’s necklace and used it as a memorial, basing every single physical mannerism of Jax on that one person.
The Evolution of Jackson Teller
Jax wasn't just a "biker." He was a prince. The show is basically Hamlet on Harleys, and Hunnam had to play the part of the grieving son, the young father, and the cold-blooded king.
Throughout seven seasons, we saw him change.
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- Season 1 Jax: Long hair, hopeful, trying to move the club into legal business.
- Middle Seasons Jax: The "President" years where he started looking more tired, his hair got shorter (especially after the prison stint), and the kills started racking up.
- Final Season Jax: A ghost. He was basically a walking corpse by the end, driven by a revenge that eventually ate him alive.
The sheer physical toll of the role was immense. Hunnam has said in interviews that he lived with Jax inside him for so long that he couldn't shake the character for years. He even refused to wear his "cut" (the leather vest) or his rings ever again—not even for a Halloween costume. For him, when Jax died on that highway in 2014, that version of Charlie died too.
What is Charlie Hunnam doing in 2026?
If you're looking for the man who plays Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy today, he’s actually in the middle of a massive career resurgence.
For a few years after Sons, it felt like Hollywood didn't quite know what to do with him. He did Pacific Rim, which was huge, but then he passed on the Fifty Shades of Grey role (thankfully, some might say) and a few of his movies like King Arthur: Legend of the Sword didn't exactly set the world on fire.
But right now? He’s everywhere.
- Monster: The Ed Gein Story: He’s playing the titular serial killer in Ryan Murphy’s third season of the Netflix anthology. It’s a total 180 from Jax. He’s creepy, soft-spoken, and honestly unrecognizable.
- Criminal: He’s starring in Amazon’s adaptation of the famous comic book series. It’s another crime drama, but it feels more grounded and gritty than the operatic violence of SAMCRO.
- The Golden Globes: He’s back in the awards conversation, recently pulling a nomination for his work in the Monster series.
It’s kind of wild to think he's 45 now. He’s married to Morgana McNelis (they actually tied the knot in 2025 after being together forever), and he seems much more at peace with his legacy.
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The Legacy of the Reaper
People still search for "who plays Jax Teller on Sons of Anarchy" because the show has this weird staying power. It’s one of those series that people discover on streaming and then lose their minds over.
Jax is a Top 10 TV anti-hero. Up there with Tony Soprano and Walter White. But unlike those guys, Jax had this "lost boy" quality that Hunnam brought to the table. You wanted him to win even when he was doing terrible things.
Key Facts About the Portrayal:
- The Tattoos: Most of the ink was fake, obviously. The "John Teller" tribute on the right arm and the "Abel" and "Thomas" names for his sons had to be applied every single day of filming.
- The Bike: He rode a 2003 Harley-Davidson Dyna Super Glide Sport. Hunnam actually became a massive motorcycle enthusiast in real life because of the show, though he’s way more careful than Jax ever was.
- The Accent: If you listen closely in the early seasons, you can catch a tiny bit of Newcastle slipping through, especially when he’s yelling. By Season 7, his American accent was bulletproof.
If you’re just finishing the series for the first time or rewatching it for the tenth, the best way to keep up with the actor is to check out his latest work on Netflix. He’s moved on from the leather vest, but that intensity he brought to Charming, California, hasn't gone anywhere.
Go watch The Gentlemen if you want to see him play a refined version of a gangster, or dive into Monster if you want to see him completely disappear into a role. Just don't expect him to get back on a Harley anytime soon. He’s left the Redwood Original life in the rearview mirror for good.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Watch 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' on Netflix to see Hunnam's most recent (and most chilling) performance.
- Check out 'The Gentlemen' (2019 film) for a look at how he handled a different kind of crime role shortly after Sons of Anarchy.
- Look for 'Criminal' on Prime Video later this year for his return to the world of high-stakes gritty drama.