Episode 44: David Koechner

Apr 24

David Koechner — Anchorman’s Champ Kind, The Office’s Todd Packer, and a Second City Alum on a Four-Decade Career, Stand-Up on the Road, and Still Showing Up for the Craft

David Koechner has appeared in more than 200 films and television shows — but talk to him for five minutes and it's clear the thing he loves most is still the work itself.

Best known as Champ Kind in the Anchorman films and Todd Packer in The Office, Koechner started his career the hard way — studying improv in Chicago under the legendary Del Close at ImprovOlympic, graduating to Second City Northwest, and then landing back-to-back stints on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the mid-'90s. From there came Talladega Nights, Thank You for Smoking, Get Smart, Waiting…, Krampus, The Goldbergs, Twin Peaks, and recurring voice roles on American Dad and F is for Family — a resume built one role at a time over nearly four decades.

These days, a huge part of his life is literally on the road. Koechner tours the country relentlessly with his stand-up act, hitting comedy clubs from Phoenix to Fort Worth to Milwaukee, often paired with his wildly popular Office Trivia nights hosted in character as Todd Packer. He also produces content on his YouTube channel Full On Koechner and co-hosts the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend charity event in Kansas City alongside Paul Rudd, Jason Sudeikis, Rob Riggle, and Eric Stonestreet.

In this episode of Hitting the Road, David pulls back the curtain on a career built from the ground up — the Second City years, the breaks that led to SNL and Anchorman, and what it actually looks like to keep creating, touring, and staying sharp after four decades in the business. We talk about the road — the real one, the one that runs through comedy clubs in towns most people fly over — and why, after everything, he's still out there doing the thing.