Matthew's parents raised longhorn cattle and horses and grew barley for Coors beer. He entered the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts for a post-grad year after high school, and then matriculated at Columbia University where he played football and majored in Economics with the intent to end up on Wall Street. However, his girl friend's mother was a modeling agent who convinced him to try some modeling which led to a couple of TV commercials. Soon after he was sold on acting.


Chosen by People (USA) magazine as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world [1996] Daughter Kyle Fox (born in 1998) and son Byron Fox (born in 2001) He frequently hosts parties at his house where the whole cast of "Lost" (2004) gathers to watch the last episode they had filmed. He has been horseback riding since he was six years old. Is good friends with Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong. He is the tallest principal cast member of "Lost" (2004) at just over 6ft 2in. Terry O'Quinn, Josh Holloway and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje are just slightly shorter. In an interview, he stated that music is a major part of his life, citing Arcade Fire, Sigur Rós, John Harold Arnold Bramwell, Modest Mouse and Texan band "The Black Angels" as some of his favourite bands. He's also a fan of punk. Announced during a recent appearance on daytime talk show "Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (2003) that he intends to quit smoking as a resolution for 2007. While promoting Vantage Point, he traveled to nine countries in three weeks. He has appeared in the most episodes of "Lost" (2004) of any actor, with 95 episodes to date. His character, Jack, has had the most "centric" episodes of any of the show's characters, with 14 episodes to date. (2009).