TLDR: Chumlee’s net worth is estimated at $5 million as of 2026. Austin Lee Russell was born September 8, 1982, in Henderson, Nevada, became childhood friends with Corey Harrison at age seven, and started working at the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop at 21, five years before the cameras arrived.
He pleaded guilty to a felony weapons charge in 2016 following a police raid, completed three years of probation, and had the felony dismissed from his record in 2019.
He lost 160 pounds via gastric sleeve surgery in 2019. His candy shop on Pawn Plaza remains open. He is the confirmed co-star of Pawn Stars Season 25 alongside Rick Harrison.
The nickname came from a walrus. A friend’s father told a twelve-year-old Austin Russell that his prominent chin and rounded face resembled Chumley, the slow-witted walrus sidekick from the 1960s cartoon Tennessee Tuxedo.
The name stuck, followed him through high school, followed him to the pawn shop, and eventually became one of the most recognized names in cable television history.
The slow-witted part was always the joke. The joke was always wrong.
The Childhood Friend and the Shop Nobody Had Heard Of
Austin Lee Russell was born on September 8, 1982, in Henderson, Nevada.
He became close friends with Corey Harrison at age seven. Corey’s father Rick and grandfather The Old Man had opened the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in 1989, and Russell spent enough time there as a teenager to absorb how the operation worked before anyone offered him a paycheck for it.
He joined officially at 21, in 2003, roughly five years before the first camera crew arrived. His initial work was blue-collar and unglamorous: testing electronics, writing ticket receipts for incoming merchandise, loading and unloading heavy items, organizing back-end inventory.
The work gave him a practical education in pawn mechanics and the psychology of people who need cash quickly. He was doing this before it was a television show, in a shop that most of Las Vegas had never heard of.
The On-Screen Character Versus the Actual Person
When Pawn Stars premiered in 2009, producers built Chumlee’s role as comedic relief. He was the village idiot, the one Rick and The Old Man shook their heads at, the one who did not know things.
The Old Man’s running gag was that Chumlee could barely tie his own shoes. Audiences loved it. He became the show’s breakout star by a wide margin, generating more fan mail than any other cast member.
The character was curated. The reality was something different. In Season 2, during the episode “Pinball Wizards,” Chumlee demonstrated a detailed mechanical and historical understanding of vintage pinball machines that surprised Corey on camera and impressed the appraiser.
His knowledge of sneakers is genuine and specific: he can identify counterfeit Air Jordans by construction details that most buyers would miss entirely.
He knows retro video games, graded trading cards, pop culture memorabilia, and sports merchandise with the precision of a collector who has spent years acquiring and studying.
In 2010, he sold a 50 percent stake in his personal novelty merchandise company to Rick Harrison for $155,000 because his branded merchandise was consistently outselling everyone else on the show. That does not happen by accident.
The 2016 Raid
On March 9, 2016, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police executed a search warrant at Chumlee’s southwest Las Vegas home, prompted by a sexual assault investigation. The investigation did not result in charges against him. The search itself found something else.
Police seized 12 firearms including an unregistered assault-style MP5 and .223-caliber rifles, a large bag of marijuana, a small quantity of methamphetamine, Xanax, drug paraphernalia, and items suggesting possible distribution activity. He was initially booked on approximately 19 felony counts.
His attorney David Chesnoff negotiated a plea deal in May 2016. Chumlee pleaded guilty to one felony weapons charge and one gross misdemeanor of attempted drug possession.
The terms: three years of probation, mandatory counseling, no jail time. If he completed probation without further issues, the felony would be dismissed from his record. He completed probation. The felony was dismissed in 2019. He has had no publicized legal issues since.
Rick Harrison’s public statement when the arrest became news was immediate: “We don’t have details yet, but we are here to help Chumlee any way we can.” The Harrison family kept him on.
The calculus was partly personal, partly commercial. Chumlee was a surrogate family member who had been in their orbit since childhood. He was also the primary driver of the shop’s merchandise revenue. Both things were true.
The Weight Loss
Chumlee had struggled with his weight for years, losing and regaining significant amounts multiple times. His father’s death from pancreatic cancer motivated earlier attempts at dietary changes that yielded temporary results. By January 2019 he weighed 350 pounds.
In February 2019 he underwent gastric sleeve surgery at Blossom Bariatrics in Las Vegas. The procedure permanently reduced his stomach to roughly the volume of a banana.
By October 2021 he had lost 160 pounds, stabilizing at approximately 190 pounds. He has described the decision as being tired of the cycle and wanting to get healthy permanently rather than temporarily. The transformation was visible and consistent across subsequent seasons of the show.
What He Built Outside the Show
Chumlee’s Candy on the Boulevard opened in June 2017 in the Pawn Plaza shipping container complex directly adjacent to the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, co-owned and operated with his brother Sage.
The shop sells nostalgic candy, retro sodas, branded memorabilia, and since 2023 has expanded into freeze-dried candy including peach rings, taffy, and Skittles.
Chumlee hosts regular meet-and-greet signings there, which functions as a controlled environment for fan interaction that suits his personality better than spontaneous public encounters.
He released a genuine 8-bit Nintendo cartridge game, Chumlee’s Adventure: The Quest for Pinky, in 2021 via a successful Kickstarter campaign.
The game, designed by homebrew developer KHAN Games, features Chumlee fighting through the pawn shop to rescue his Pomeranian dog Pinky, with cameos from digitized versions of Rick, Corey, and security guard Antwaun.
It was built for actual NES hardware and appeals to exactly the retro gaming and collector audience that makes up a core segment of his fanbase.
His personal sneaker collection exceeds 200 pairs including Nike SB Dunks, Michael Jordan Space Jam sneakers, and limited-edition Yeezys. His car collection has included a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Maserati GranTurismo, and a hydraulic-lift 1986 Buick Regal.
He purchased a two-acre Las Vegas property in 2012 for approximately $1.1 million and sold it in 2019 for $1.375 million.
He married Olivia Rademann in Hawaii in May 2019. By early 2023, social media activity suggested a separation. Neither party made a detailed public statement about the status of the marriage.
Pawn Stars Season 25 and What He Is Doing Now
Following Corey Harrison’s departure from the show in 2024, Chumlee and Rick Harrison became the confirmed co-stars for the Season 25 relaunch, with new episodes airing in 2025 and additional seasons in production for 2027.
The dynamic between Rick and Chumlee is the longest continuous relationship in the franchise. They have worked together for over two decades.
In February 2026, Rick and Chumlee launched Pawn After Dark, a weekly podcast recorded in a custom studio inside the shop after hours. Early guests included Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis, guitarist Billy F. Gibbons, BMX star T.J. Lavin, and comedian Piff the Magic Dragon.
The show is produced by Tracy Whitaker, who managed Pawn Stars production for a decade.
Chumlee’s estimated net worth of $5 million reflects cumulative television earnings, merchandise income, the candy shop, the 2010 novelty company stake sale to Rick, and real estate gains.
It is substantially lower than Rick’s $9 to $12 million because Chumlee holds no ownership stake in the pawn shop. His wealth comes from what he built alongside the show rather than from equity in the business that made the show possible.
The distinction matters more now that the cameras are the primary remaining connection.
For the full cast story, see the Pawn Stars cast hub.
What is Chumlee’s net worth?
Chumlee’s net worth is estimated at $5 million as of 2026, built from cumulative earnings from Pawn Stars across 25 seasons, merchandise income, Chumlee’s Candy on the Boulevard, the 2010 novelty company stake sale to Rick Harrison, and real estate gains. He holds no ownership stake in the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.
What happened to Chumlee from Pawn Stars?
Chumlee is currently co-starring in Pawn Stars Season 25 alongside Rick Harrison following Corey Harrison’s permanent departure in 2024. He and Rick launched the Pawn After Dark podcast in February 2026. His candy shop, Chumlee’s Candy on the Boulevard, remains open at Pawn Plaza in Las Vegas. He lost 160 pounds via gastric sleeve surgery in 2019 and has had no legal issues since completing probation in 2019.
Why was Chumlee arrested?
On March 9, 2016, Las Vegas police executed a search warrant at Chumlee’s home as part of a sexual assault investigation. He was not charged with sexual assault. The search found 12 firearms, marijuana, methamphetamine, and Xanax. He pleaded guilty to a felony weapons charge and a gross misdemeanor drug charge in May 2016, received three years of probation and mandatory counseling with no jail time, and had the felony dismissed from his record after completing probation in 2019.
Where did Chumlee’s nickname come from?
A friend’s father gave Austin Russell the nickname Chumlee around age 12, comparing his prominent chin and rounded face to Chumley the walrus, the sidekick from the 1960s animated series Tennessee Tuxedo. The nickname followed him through school and into the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop, eventually becoming one of the most recognized names in cable television.
Is Chumlee still on Pawn Stars?
Yes. Chumlee is the confirmed co-star of Pawn Stars Season 25 alongside Rick Harrison, with new episodes in production for 2027. He and Rick also host the Pawn After Dark podcast recorded from inside the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.
