Joey Chestnut Biography

Joey Chestnut is a five-time winner of the annual July 4th Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest at Coney Island. He ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes to score his first win in 2007 (dethroning the six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi) and then won the next four competitions in a row. Joey Chestnut made his name in competitive eating when he ate 59 and 1/2 hot dogs on 2 June 2007 at a contest in Tempe, Arizona, shattering the previous world record of 53 and 1/2 dogs held by Kobayashi. Chestnut began eating competitively in 2005 while a student at San Jose State University; his stomach capacity and his fame rose in tandem until his 2007 breakthrough. According to his profile from the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), Chestnut's other accomplishments include wolfing 47 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes in 2006, and 9 pounds, 5 ounces of deep-fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes in 2011. Joey Chestnut repeated as the Coney Island hot dog champ in 2008 (tying Kobayashi with 59 dogs in 10 minutes, then eating five more in a tiebreaker), in 2009 (68 dogs), in 2010 (54 dogs), and in 2011 (62 dogs).