What You Don't Know About Taylor Kinney

Taylor Kinney is clearly a big sports fan, so it's not surprising that he's an accomplished athlete himself. In high school, he played volleyball, and he was such a good player he won Section Two Volleyball Player of the Year (per TV Guide). 

Later, as a college student, he started boxing. His grandfather was a big fan of the sport and would watch matches with Kinney. Those matches inspired Kinney to try boxing himself, and he was immediately struck by how difficult the sport is, telling Assignment X, "When I started boxing, I started out doing three-minute rounds and by the end of that third round, you could barely put your hands up."

Kinney's background in sports influenced his training and preparation for "Chicago Fire." He and the cast participated in ride-alongs with first responders and trained at the firefighter academy with fire simulations. He watched firefighter training, and he felt confident giving it a go himself. However, it wasn't until he put on the 65-pound gear that he understood just how difficult it was — just like his experience watching boxing matches hadn't entirely prepared him for how difficult it was to box. He explained that with "the first onslaught of an experience training, you realize how difficult it is and how much training [the firefighters] have."