His father is of Danish descent and his mother has Swedish and Italian ancestry. He was an athlete in high school, playing hockey competitively and tennis on a provincial level. He spent summers in Long Island with his maternal grandmother, Rose Schwartz, and attended the Actors Studio in New York as well as the Arts York program for drama at his high school. He acquired wider notice while starring in Fox Family Channel’s television series Higher Ground in 2000, portraying a teen who was sexually molested by his stepmother, and then turned to drugs in his despair. He went on to receive good reviews for 2003’s Shattered Glass, which tells the true story of journalist Stephen Glass, who was discovered fabricating stories as a writer for The New Republic. On May 12, 2000, Christensen announced that he would be starring as Anakin Skywalker in the next two prequels Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). in the final two films of the prequel trilogy, Christensen was the only actor portraying a Jedi who was not allowed to customize his character’s lightsaber.

He spent summers in Long Island with his maternal grandmother, Rose Schwartz, and attended the Actors Studio in New York as well as the Arts York program for drama at his high school. in 2002, Christensen made his London theater debut co-starring with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anna Paquin in This Is Our Youth. He was among the big name actors and actresses taking part in the fifth annual “24 Hour Plays” benefit, which raises cash for nonprofit groups in the Big Apple. Director George Lucas had turned down such big names as Leonardo DiCaprio and Ryan Phillipe for the role, as well as 1,500 other candidates. Lucas is quoted as saying that he chose Christensen because he “needed an actor who has that presence of the dark side” that was essential to solidify the story that Lucas was trying to tell: The tragic fall of Anakin Skywalker and the rise of Darth Vader. Lucas agreed, and a suit was engineered to fit Christensen’s frame, even including extensions to allow for the actor to attain Vader’s 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m).