Despite never showing his face to gamers (a few glimpses from Legendary endings notwithstanding), Master Chief is one of the most iconic video game heroes we know. He is the faceless protagonist of the Halo series who never hesitates when it comes to getting the job done. He has saved the world from the Covenant, from the Flood, from the Didact, and we suspect that he's going to have to save the world from Cortana in Halo: Infinite.
Despite being a renowned hero, within the Halo universe as well as without, there are still a few things players don't know about Master Chief. If you've played a Halo game before, you'll know that the games never really focus on Master Chief so much as they focus on his awesome adventures. The only way to truly know all of the tidbits about John-117 is to read the collection of fiction that supports Halo's lore. Read on if you want to learn more about what is underneath that Mjolnir armor.
Updated April 17, 2022 by Amanda Hurych: The arrival of the Halo television show on Paramount Plus means that there are more facts about Master Chief's body for fans to know! (And no, we're not talking about "shocking" face and body reveals.) Though the Master Chief is not as faceless as he used to be, curiosity still abounds regarding what he's really like, and the series introduces new elements about the Chief's make-up.
20 He Has An "Emotion Pellet" Lodged In His Back
In the Silver Timeline introduced by the Halo television show on Paramount Plus, certain augmentations performed on the Spartans have received a new twist. All Spartans, the Master Chief included, are fitted with a small mechanical pellet near the base of their spine on their back. The purpose of this pellet is to suppress the emotions of the Spartans. There's a whole storyline regarding this pellet (and its removal) in the Halo TV show, but suffice it to say that it affects the Master Chief and his outlook on life.
19 He Has A Special Connection To Forerunner Artifacts
As with the last entry, this Master Chief tidbit has to do with the version we see of him in the Silver Timeline. In regular canon, all of humanity can interact with Forerunner artifacts. It's a bit of an important plot point in Halo 2 and 3 as the Covenant need to acquire humans to activate the rings. In the new Halo TV show, it appears that only a select few can do this, including the Master Chief. Certain artifacts seem to only respond to the Chief's touch.
18 Master Chief Has Freckles
John-117 was an ordinary little kid before he was plucked from his home by Dr. Catherine Halsey and secretly ushered into the SPARTAN-II program. It's hard to think of him as a regular little kid given how he is now a massive soldier in hulking armor. But did you know that Master Chief has freckles? In Eric Nylund's book, The Fall of Reach, young John is described as having freckles across his cheeks.
17 He Can Run Up To 60 Miles Per Hour
Early Halo games don't give the option to have Master Chief sprint, but regardless of how he runs in the game, lore tells us that Master Chief can run very quickly, faster than the game's mechanics make it appear. In Mjolnir armor, Master Chief can run up to 60 miles per hour. Despite its hefty shape, the armor actually speeds the Chief up rather than slow him down.
16 He Is Incredibly Tall
Halo 4 ends with an epilogue that features a cutscene of Master Chief removing his armor. It starts with the Chief walkiing past Spartan Sarah Palmer, and you get to see how tall he is in comparison to her. Granted, he's wearing his Mjolnir armor, but then again, so is she. Without his armor on, Master Chief stands at six feet and seven inches. That's taller than Superman's recorded height.
15 His Skin Is Pale Underneath The Armor
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For most of the time that we've spent with the Chief, he wears his Mjolnir armor. A consequence of him wearing it all the time is that his skin is really pale. You can only catch a glimpse of this in the Legendary ending to Halo 4, when you are given a sneak peek of Master Chief's face, but you can rest assured that his body is just as pale as his head.
14 Chief In His Mjolnir Armor Weighs 1000 Lbs.
The speed of Chief's Mjolnir armor is not the only thing that might surprise you about it. While Master Chief is in his armor, he weighs one thousand pounds. This can make even the most ardent of Halo fans question how he could ever move at such high speeds as 60 mph. The earth should tremble at his approach. He should not be able to sneak up on unsuspecting Covenant forces while wearing it. They would be able to hear him coming long before he got close enough to strike.
13 The Librarian Sped Up His Evolution
In Halo 4, in order to bolster the Master Chief's defenses against the Didact, the Librarian sped up his evolution. This process gave the Chief an immunity to the effects of the Didact's weapon, the Composer, a device that turns humans into digital beings. But you have to wonder what else this process has done to the Chief. It might never be mentioned again, but the idea of speeding up the Chief's evolution sounds like it could have lasting repercussions.
12 His Eyesight Was Enhanced
Part of John-117's augmentations when he was going through the SPARTAN-II program went to giving him optimal physical performance. As such, his eyesight was made better than a normal person's. However, even from a young age, John probably possessed pretty good vision already. When Dr. Halsey first approached him and tested him by having him guess what side a coin would land on, he was able to see where it would land correctly every time.
11 He Has Brown Hair
As super soldiers, Spartans are not allowed to really grow out their hair. But it's interesting for fans of Halo to note that John-117 has brown hair. We never really get to see Master Chief's head, so his hair color has been a bit of a mystery.
But thanks to the books and the animated film, The Fall of Reach, missing pieces of information regarding Chief's appearance have come to light.
10 He Can Move At The Literal Speed Of Thought
Mjolnir armor is truly one of the most marvelous creations in the Halo universe. The armor has a network that connects with the neural implants of the Spartan wearing it. What that means is that any movement that Master Chief thinks of doing is automatically sent to the armor, even before he moves anything. It's almost as if the armor is able to read his mind and move before he actually moves his own arm.
9 Decreased Libido
Spartans suffer from a reduced sex drive thanks to the augmentations that Dr. Catherine Halsey forced upon them when they were young. This helps them become more focused soldiers. It also eliminates potential distractions to a Spartan's mission. Master Chief is not the only Spartan who underwent this process. Everyone in the SPARTAN-II program that survived the augmentations has a lowered libido.
8 He Was Covered In Blisters During Combat Evolved
When going into a cryo-pod in the Halo universe, everyone has to remove their clothes because otherwise, numerous blisters arise from the ice crystals that form underneath clothing and on the skin. In the first Halo game, Master Chief was awoken from cryo-sleep and he was seen wearing his Mjolnir armor. That means he was covered in painful blisters. In Eric Nylund's book, The Flood, it mentions how the Chief was in quite a large amount of pain when he stepped out of his cryo-pod.
7 He Has Crow's Feet
If you completed the Halo 4 campaign on the Legendary difficulty setting, you were treated to a quick glimpse of the Master Chief's face. Okay, it wasn't his whole face; it was just the area around his eyes. But that tiny snapshot of his facial features gave fans a lot to work with. Master Chief has crow's feet, which makes sense given he's been around for a while.
6 He Is Over 40 Years Old
As most timelines currently have it set, Master Chief was over forty years of age, chronologically speaking, when the events of Halo: Combat Evolved first occurred. That will make him pretty old by the time Halo Infinite rolls around.
Of course, that does not take into account several things that have happened to Master Chief since then. He was augmented as a child, he has spent many years in cryo-sleep, and the Librarian did the evolution thing to him in Halo 4. For all we know, the Chief is now immortal.
5 Cortana Can Access His Brain
Every time Master Chief plugs Cortana into his armor, she gets to access the same parts of Master Chief as the armor does. She is, quite literally, in his brain. She can speed up the flow of his neural pathways so his reaction times are that much faster. That's all well and good when she is working alongside the Chief, but if Cortana were ever to turn against the Chief, he might regret how much of a hold she has over him.
4 Master Chief Knows Hand-To-Hand Combat
The SPARTAN-II program left no stone unturned when it picked out what their Spartans would be trained in. Master Chief, along with all of the other Spartans, are well-versed in hand-to-hand combat. The Chief was able to take on four ODSTs in a fight when he wasn't wearing any armor, and he was able to beat Spartan Locke in a fistfight while they were both wearing armor.
3 He Has Blue Eyes
An animated film about the events of Eric Nylund's The Fall of Reach was made, and it was there that we got our best look at what the Master Chief looks like. It was in this film that it was confirmed that John-117 has bright, blue eyes gazing out from beneath his Mjolnir helmet. There had been conflicting guesses as to what color his eyes were, but now we can solidly stand in Camp Blue.
2 His Body Is Covered In Scars
Aside from being extremely pale, we also know that the Master Chief's body is covered in thick scars. These scars come from some of the more painful augmentations that all Spartans had to undergo when they were still children. These augmentations made them stronger and faster than a normal person, but the idea of these processes being done to kids is sickening. There's a reason why everyone in the UNSC seems to regard Dr. Halsey, mother of the SPARTAN program, with reproach.
1 He Has A Gap Between His Front Teeth
In Halo lore, John-117 is mentioned as having a gap between his front teeth when he was a kid. However, it is unclear whether the augmentations Dr. Halsey gave him would have corrected his teeth or not. Plus, the Chief always wears a helmet, so how are we to know if the gap is still there? Also, he never smiles anyways, so even if he did miraculously take off his helmet, odds are he would not crack a grin and show us his pearly whites.