Derek Thornley
Born August 29, 2002
I was born and raised in Howell, Michigan. When I was young, I was very involved in things that most kids wouldn't be. While my brother Lucas was out doing things like riding his dirt bike, hunting with my dad, and experimenting with playing different sports, I was inside the house researching the history of the Titanic, going antiquing with my mom, and I even created a "company" that would restore antiques called Thornley's Restorations.
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I wasn't your average kid. I had a love for things that most kids my age had no clue even existed. I was the nerdy kid that did nothing but learn. I was closer to my teachers all throughout school then I was my classmates. It wasn't until I got into gaming when my whole direction in life altered... slightly.
Becoming 'ChunkeyMonkey40'
I'm always getting asked, "So why in the hell do you go by ChunkeyMonkey40? You're skinny as hell!" Well, I wasn't when I was younger.
My mom's friend Stacy would always call me Chunky Monkey because I had chubby cheeks. So when my dad got me and my brother an Xbox 360, it should've been no surprise that I would choose it as my gamertag. Only someone had already taken ChunkyMonkey as their gamer tag, so I had to add a number. Originally, the 40 was supposed to be 401 (the Titanic's shipyard number). When I retyped in Chunky, I spelled it wrong by including an E. The 15 character limit was reached and the one was cut off... so ChunkeyMonkey40 stuck. It wasn't until I had started YouTube and someone pointed it out in the comments that I realized chunky was spelled wrong. But it's stuck ever since. I don't plan on correcting it either.
My brother Lucas (left) and me holding my Spongebob Koozie, in my Scooby Doo Life Jacket (right)
When I started playing Grand Theft Auto 5 with my my best friend, Keegan, he introduced me to some YouTube Channels like MrBossFTW, VanossGaming, and Lui Calibre. They all made GTA 5 videos, so Keegan and I would watch them and think "damn this would be cool to do." So on April 29, 2015, we launched our YouTube Channel TnD Gaming. TnD stood for Thornley n' Doyle; our last names.
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The videos we made were very basic. We mainly did game play commentaries and mission tutorials for the different game modes in GTA 5. Eventually, Keegan lost interest in making videos but agreed to continue helping me with mine, so I launched my own channel. ChunkeyMonkey40 was born.