Biographie
David Chan Cordeiro is a Portuguese stunt coordinator, rigger, born in the Algarve, Portugal. His passion for action cinema began at age six, sparked by Hong Kong classics like Snake in the Eagle's Shadow (1978), Drunken Master (1978), and Shaolin Temple (1982). He consumed Jackie Chan and Jet Li films obsessively, which led him to begin Kung Fu training at nine. He later added acrobatic gymnastics and full-contact martial arts to his skill set.
By 16, he was shooting homemade action shorts with a Hi8 camcorder-teaching himself choreography, camerawork, and storytelling. In 2000, he moved to the U.S. to study film, graduating from Cal State Long Beach in 2006. His first break in stunts came on Blood and Bone (2009) under action legend J.J. Perry , followed by work with directors and fight designers like Ron Yuan, Clayton J. Barber and Larnell Stovall - shaping a career that merges performance with action design.
In 2009, David founded Mad Stunts, one of Portugal's first dedicated stunt teams. He has since worked on international productions across Europe, India, and Brazil, with credits including Uncharted (2022), The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023), and Netflix Brazil's Criminal Code (2023), where he served as action coordinator.
To this day, David still devours martial arts films like a kid in a candy store-and when he's not on set, he's on the mats practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or carving up the back roads on his motorcycle.
