Jim Caviezel was born in Mount Vernon, Washington, on 26 September 1968 to Jim and Maggie Caviezal, one of five children in a religious Catholic family. A gifted athlete as a young man, he performed brilliantly on the basketball court and dreamt of joining the NBA.

Caviezel attended Seattle's O'Dea High School, and later Burien Kennedy High, attending Bellevue Community College after graduation where he continued to play ball but a foot injury forced him to withdraw from the team and try acting instead.

Caviezel made his film debut with a bit part as an airline clerk in My Own Private Idaho (1991). Accepted at Juilliard that same year, he declined the school's offer for a supporting role in Wyatt Earp (1994) which unfortunately flopped. For the next several years, he starred minor roles in films like The Rock(1996) and G.I. Jane (1997) and more substantial roles in such as Ed (1996).

Fortunately, in 1998, Caviezel struck gold when he starred in the war opus The Thin Red Line which received a number of Oscar nominations including Best Picture. The next year, he gained further recognition with his role as one of a group of renegade Civil War soldiers in Ride With the Devil and his portrayal of a football coach's embittered son in Any Given Sunday.

In 2000, Caviezel starred in the supernatural thriller Frequency, as a fireman who - through a supernatural occurrence -- communicates with his long-dead father, played by Dennis Quaid, over a ham radio. The film earned solid ratings and did decent box office.

Later that same year, Caviezel starred in Pay it Forward as a homeless junkie befriended by a young boy, played by Haley Joel Osment. He then landed a role opposite Jennifer Lopez in the romantic drama Angel Eyes (2001). Though it failed in the box office, the film increased his fame and critics started to take note of the actor's ability for the first time.

Caviezel’s next film, The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) boasted an excellent lead performance by Caviezel. Before getting on in Highwaymen (2004), he took a turn as a mysterious former Marine in High Crimes and a lower-key role in I Am David.

With his role as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ (2004) -- not to mention the actual suffering that he endured when his shoulder was separated during the crucifixion sequence -- the actor pushed to more extreme lengths than almost any performer of his generation. The story of the film is notorious and it became one of the highest grosser in movie history, earning 600 million worldwide.

Though Caviezel appeared in no major films during 2005, but he continued to land parts in movie opposite top actors in the next year in the sci-fi action Déjà Vu.

Jim Caviezel married Kerri Browitt in 1997, a school teacher whom he met on a blind date in 1993. Shortly afterward, they adopted a three-year-old Chinese daughter, Bo. The Caviezel family lives in California's Conejo Valley.