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You’ve probably seen the lists. Fifty, sixty, a hundred famous people with a sunken chest, each with a shirtless photo as proof. Most of those names are guesses. Someone looked at a picture and added a name.
I had pectus excavatum, the condition where the breastbone sits sunken into the chest. I was diagnosed at 15. A picture can’t tell you what someone has.
So this list works the other way round. It only includes people who’ve said it themselves, or whose condition or surgery a credible outlet, broadcast or hospital has documented. That gives you nine people, each with a source and a date. After them, you’ll find straight answers on the names everyone asks about, like Michael Phelps and Sean Gunn.
The 9 at a glance
| Name | Known for | How it’s on record | How sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joel Kinnaman | Actor (The Killing, Altered Carbon) | His surgery, reported in interviews and summarised by Wikipedia | Documented |
| Zach Woods | Actor (The Office, Silicon Valley) | Said it on The Late Late Show in 2016 | Own words |
| Tori Spelling | Actress (Beverly Hills, 90210) | Talked about it on her podcast in 2025 | Own words |
| Josh Widdicombe | Comedian (The Last Leg) | A TV doctor named it on air in 2011 | Documented |
| Cody Miller | US Olympic swimmer | His own interviews | Own words |
| Tim Melville | Former MLB pitcher | A patient story from the hospital that operated on him | Documented |
| Olivier Richters | Dutch bodybuilder and actor | Fitness media, summarised by Wikipedia | Documented |
| Steven Crowder | US YouTube host and podcaster | His own videos and posts in 2021 | Own words |
| Ludwig Ahgren | Streamer | Jokes about it on stream, and an outlet calls it pectus excavatum | Self-described, weaker |
How I decided who made the list
Someone is on this list only if they named the condition themselves, or a credible outlet, broadcast or hospital documented it or their surgery for it. Photos never count.
That’s because a dip in a photo isn’t a diagnosis. Lighting, pose and camera angle all change how a chest looks, and a shadow under the chest muscles can read as a dip that isn’t there. The Chris Evans answer further down is one disputed example.
Each person below gets one of three labels:
- Own words. They said it themselves, on a show, a podcast, in an interview or in their own videos.
- Documented. A credible outlet, broadcast or hospital recorded the condition or the surgery.
- Self-described, weaker. They talk openly about the dent, but the medical name comes from an outlet, not from them.
The old version of this page listed 101 names. Most of them were picked from photos. They don’t meet this rule, so they’re gone. If a new name meets it, it belongs here, and the number in the title changes with it.
Actors and comedians
1. Joel Kinnaman
Who: Actor, known for The Killing and Altered Carbon.
What’s on record: He grew up with pectus excavatum. Before filming Altered Carbon, he had surgery in which two metal bars were used to push his breastbone outward.
Source: Wikipedia, summarising his interviews with The Telegraph (February 2018) and The Atlantic (October 2019).
How sure: Documented. Both interviews are behind paywalls, so I couldn’t read them myself. This card rests on Wikipedia’s summary of them.
2. Zach Woods
Who: Actor, known for The Office and Silicon Valley.
What’s on record: On James Corden’s Late Late Show in 2016 he said, “I have something called pectus excavatum.” He then told a story about taking his shirt off at an audition, watching the casting director’s eyes drop to the dip, and realising he wasn’t getting the part.
Source: His words as quoted by AnatomikModeling, a company that makes custom chest implants, and by Life With Pectus. Broadcast in 2016.
How sure: Own words, quoted secondhand. I couldn’t find the clip itself, so I’m going on two separate written quotes of it.
If you’ve ever dreaded taking your shirt off in front of someone, that story will sound familiar.
3. Tori Spelling
Who: Actress, known for Beverly Hills, 90210.
What’s on record: On her MisSpelling podcast she said her sunken chest is “a bone thing, and it’s genetic”, and that some of her kids have it too. PEOPLE identified it as pectus excavatum and reported that she’d talked about it in earlier episodes.
Source: PEOPLE, syndicated on AOL, 14 July 2025.
How sure: Own words. She described it in her own terms rather than by the medical name. PEOPLE put the name to it.
If the family part caught your eye, I’ve covered what causes pectus excavatum separately.
4. Josh Widdicombe
Who: English comedian, known for The Last Leg.
What’s on record: On Channel 4’s 8 Out of 10 Cats, broadcast on 19 August 2011, he showed his chest to Dr Christian Jessen, who named it pectus excavatum on air. That’s how he found out.
Source: Wikipedia, citing the episode.
How sure: Documented. I haven’t watched the episode. Wikipedia’s citation quotes Jessen naming the condition.
Athletes
5. Cody Miller
Who: US Olympic swimmer. At the 2016 Rio Olympics he won gold in the 4×100 m medley relay and bronze in the 100 m breaststroke.
What’s on record: He has pectus excavatum and chose not to have surgery. He has said it reduces his lung capacity. In an interview with Olympics.com he put it plainly: “it looks like I have a big hole in my chest, because I do.”
Source: Wikipedia, and his interview with Olympics.com.
How sure: Own words.
He competed at the very top of his sport with a chest he describes that way. If you came here searching for Michael Phelps, see the names I couldn’t confirm further down.
6. Tim Melville
Who: Former Major League Baseball pitcher.
What’s on record: At 11, in the winter of 2001, he had the Nuss procedure, where a surgeon places a curved metal bar behind the breastbone to push it out. Drs Donald Nuss and Robert Kelly operated on him at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD). The hospital says the bar came out a little over a year later. He made his MLB debut for the Cincinnati Reds on 10 April 2016, and CHKD calls him the first Nuss patient to reach the major leagues.
Source: CHKD, “Major League Pectus”, 29 October 2021. The hospital gives the debut date without the year. The year is from his Wikipedia page.
How sure: Documented, by the hospital that treated him.
7. Olivier Richters
Who: Dutch bodybuilder and actor.
What’s on record: He was born with pectus excavatum and had surgery for it when he was young.
Source: Wikipedia, summarising reports in Fitness Volt (2017) and EssentiallySports (2024).
How sure: Documented. The reports don’t make clear which operation he had. The old version of this page said it was the Nuss procedure. I couldn’t confirm that, so I’ve left it as “surgery”.
Streamers and YouTubers
8. Steven Crowder
Who: US YouTube host and podcaster.
What’s on record: In a June 2021 video he said a connective tissue disorder had left his chest “caving in on” his heart. He had surgery that July and afterwards referred to it as his “pectus surgery”.
Source: Insider, 28 July 2021 (archived copy). Newsweek reported his words the same day.
How sure: Own words. The old version of this page named the hospital. None of the reports I found do, so I’ve left it out.
9. Ludwig Ahgren
Who: Streamer and YouTuber.
What’s on record: He jokes on stream about his “chest hole” and has lifted his shirt to show it. Sportskeeda states that he has pectus excavatum. Wikipedia’s pectus excavatum article also lists him, citing a 2020 tweet in which he joked about it.
Source: Sportskeeda, 17 June 2022.
How sure: Self-described, weaker. He’s open about the dent, but in what I found he doesn’t use the medical name. That label comes from Sportskeeda.
Why there’s only one woman on this list
Tori Spelling is the only woman I could confirm. That doesn’t mean she’s the only famous woman with pectus excavatum. It means she’s the only one I found who has talked about it, or had it documented.
Other lists fill that gap with photos and guesses about women’s bodies. I’m not doing that. A woman’s chest is hers to talk about, and a photo can’t tell you what’s going on underneath.
There’s also a reason it may be harder to spot. The surgical institute ICWS points out that the dip often deepens in early adolescence, the same years breasts develop, so breast development may hide it and women may be identified less often. It cites a 2022 study in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. That’s a possible explanation, not a settled fact. If you’re a woman with a sunken chest, I’ve written a separate guide on pectus excavatum in women.
Names you’ll see online that I couldn’t confirm
People often search for these names alongside pectus excavatum. For each one, I couldn’t find them saying they have it, or a reliable report that they do. That proves nothing. Maybe they have it, maybe they don’t. Either way, talking about their body is their call.
Does Michael Phelps have pectus excavatum?
I couldn’t find Phelps saying it, or a reliable report. The claim turns up on low-quality list sites, and his Wikipedia page doesn’t mention it. If you’re looking for an Olympic swimmer who does have it on record, that’s Cody Miller, number 5 above.
Does Sean Gunn have pectus excavatum?
I couldn’t find anything from Sean Gunn himself about his chest, or a reliable report naming a condition. The talk comes from fans who’ve seen him on screen without a shirt, and they don’t agree on what they’re seeing. Some say pectus excavatum. Others say pectus carinatum, where the breastbone pushes outward instead of sinking in. Life With Pectus wrote that his chest “almost looks like” carinatum. So neither condition is confirmed.
Jeff Goldblum
Most of the talk points back to Jurassic Park. AnatomikModeling lists him based on how his chest looks on screen, but notes that he hasn’t discussed it publicly. I couldn’t find him saying it either.
Joaquin Phoenix
Photo claims only. You’ll also read that “the Joker has pectus excavatum”. That line comes from The Further Adventures of The Joker, a 1990 collection of short stories that isn’t part of the official DC Comics canon, as AnatomikModeling points out. And a fictional character’s chest tells you nothing about the actor’s.
Did Patrick Swayze have pectus excavatum?
I couldn’t find a source at all. His Wikipedia page, his Britannica entry and the obituaries I found don’t mention it.
Chris Evans
Photo claims only. Life With Pectus says one photo is behind most of the confusion, and puts the “dip” in it down to lighting: a shadow under his chest muscles rather than a sunken chest. That’s their read. I couldn’t find him saying anything about it.
Nick Zano
Photo claims only. I couldn’t find him saying it, or a reliable report.
If you came here looking for famous people with a pigeon chest, that’s pectus carinatum, a different condition. Start with the carinatum guide linked in the Sean Gunn answer above.
Fighters and wrestlers
If you’re looking for Edmen Shahbazyan, Kofi Kingston or other fighters people say have it, I’ve covered what’s actually on record for each in my post on boxing, MMA and wrestling with pectus excavatum. Nate Diaz comes up too. I couldn’t confirm it for him either: the claims I found are based on photos.
You’re in more company than you think
Nine names can make pectus excavatum look rare. It isn’t. Estimates vary, but the Cleveland Clinic puts it at about 1 to 8 in every 1,000 people, more often in boys. My read is that this list is short because so few famous people talk about their chest, not because so few have it.
The nine also show there’s no single right way to live with it. Kinnaman, Melville, Richters and Crowder had surgery. Cody Miller chose not to, and still won Olympic gold. Neither choice is a failure. People with very public lives have handled it in different ways. That doesn’t make pectus excavatum only about looks: Miller himself has said it cuts into his lung capacity, and Crowder described his chest “caving in on” his heart.
My own route was non-surgical. I turned down surgery and corrected my chest over about three years of daily vacuum bell use and training. The result was visible and measurable, but not complete. I’m not a doctor, and what worked for me won’t be right for everyone. I’ve written my full story if you want the details, and if your chest is weighing on how you feel about yourself, start with my guide to building confidence with pectus excavatum.
My free 1-minute quiz gives you a sense of where your own chest stands and which non-surgical route fits your case. Be ready for an honest timeline. Structural change is measured in months and years.
Sources
- Joel Kinnaman. Wikipedia. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
- Celebrity with Pectus Excavatum. AnatomikModeling. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
- Shultz CL. Report on Tori Spelling’s MisSpelling podcast. PEOPLE, syndicated on AOL. 2025 Jul 14. Read it
- Josh Widdicombe. Wikipedia. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
- Cody Miller. Wikipedia. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
- Major League Pectus. Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters (CHKD). 2021 Oct 29. Read it
- Olivier Richters. Wikipedia. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
- Haasch P. Report on Steven Crowder’s health. Insider. 2021 Jul 28. Archived copy. Read it
- Parker J. Report on Ludwig Ahgren’s livestream with Valkyrae. Sportskeeda. 2022 Jun 17. Read it
- 66 Celebrities with pectus excavatum found in 2023. Life With Pectus. Updated 2022 Oct 6. Read it
- Pectus Excavatum. Cleveland Clinic. [cited 2026 Oct 19]. Read it
Correcting the chest takes months. Not letting it run your social life in the meantime is its own piece of work, and it is trainable.
- Body image work that is evidence-based
- Scripts for the conversations you dread
- Shirt off in public, worked up to properly
This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting any treatment plan. View full disclaimer →
