Chelsea Handler's then-and-now photos will leave you stunned – see transformation

Chelsea was born in Livingston, New Jersey, and is the youngest of six children. Her father, Seymour, was a used car salesman and her mother, Rita, was a stay-at-home mom.

Chelsea admitted that her family struggled financially, and while her parents were "great" and there was "a lot of love in our house", she confessed, "they were kind of hot messes".

Growing up with money woes inspired Chelsea to make something of herself. "I just thought, 'I don't ever want to live like that. I don't want to worry about the phone being cut off, and I don't ever want to have people not be able to depend on me,'" she told People.

Chelsea is well known for her no-nonsense attitude but as a teenager, she made a drastic move of entering a beauty pageant in an attempt to boost her self-esteem after being bullied about her looks.

Chelsea entered the Miss Teen New Jersey pageant and came in the top 15. When asked why she applied, she told Vanity Fair: "For the recognition that I was beautiful and that I could use an entire bottle of Aquanet on my head in one sitting, and go out in a prom dress or a gown or whatever the [expleyive] I wore, and kill it."

Chelsea "barely" graduated from high school so skipped college and moved to Los Angeles where she waited tables, which she said taught her some valuable lessons.

"Everyone needs to see what it's like on the other side, so they know how to treat waiters and waitresses," she told Women's Health.

She said that being a waitress and showing up even when she didn't want to "gave me a sense of worth and reliability. It gave me something more inspirational to do than just going to work every day and trying to remember the monotony of the menu".

Chelsea posed for the cover of Playboy magazine in 2009 wearing a gold string bikini and matching boots.

At the time, Chelsea, who frequently makes cracks about her love of drinking and smoking marijuana, joked that to get her body in shape for the photoshoot, she "quit drinking for like a day and a half".

"I'm not naked on the cover," she told Jay Leno in 2009. "My dad is probably gonna love it," she added.

In 2012, Chelsea was named one of Time magazine's most influential people in the world. Before that, she made it onto Forbes' World's 100 Most Powerful Women list.

Speaking to Forbes about her career, she joked that she went into comedy because she's "not responsible enough to hold down a regular job where you have to be on your best behavior".

Chelsea will celebrate her 50th birthday in 2025 and she has never looked better than she does today.

The multi-talented star began to take her health more seriously a few years ago and includes regular workouts, meditation, and a healthier diet into her lifestyle.

Chelsea's physique is incredible, and she isn't shy about showing off her strong body in various stages of undress on social media.

She has honed her diet and now makes sure that she eats frequently to curb any sugar cravings.

"I always make sure I have something every three to four hours because a nutritionist once taught me it's the best way to control your blood sugar levels," she told Women’s Health.

Chelsea sticks to a routine to maintain her healthier lifestyle. 

"I wake up at 6 a.m.," she told the publication. "It doesn't matter what country or what state or what timezone I'm in, I always wake up at six exactly. My biorhythm knows that it's 6 a.m. somewhere, just like it knows it's five o'clock somewhere when I need to start drinking."

She will informally practice intermittent fasting and attempt to "go for as long as I can without eating in the morning," but she still fuels her body "consistently".

"I think when you consistently feed your body, you have less of an inclination to [pig out]," she explained. "I like to eat light, and I don't overdo it now. When I'm eating, I take my time and pay attention to when I'm full."