Chatwin, born and raised on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, did not originally plan to go into acting. When he was 18, he took up a friend on a dare to accompany him on an audition. The bug bit him, and Chatwin never looked back. His first part was a small one in the television miniseries, “Christy, Choices of the Heart,” followed by a small role as a rock fan in “Josie & The Pussycats” in 2001. He followed that with a small part in the Sci-Fi Channel miniseries “Taken” in 2002, his first official work with Steven Spielberg. But his first recognizable role was in another miniseries, “Traffic,” in 2004, followed by another quirky and memorable part was as a youthful and disturbed hitchhiker in “Taking Lives.”
After his double threat in 2005, Chatwin lit up fan message boards online with the announcement of his next role, as an adult film star in “The Pornographer’s Poem,” set for release in 2006, and in “The Invisible,” directed by David Goyer, also set for 2006.