In 2012, Kodjoe sat for an interview with Bet and opened up about the struggles he had been through prior to the fame and glory.
The actor revealed he was raised in a small German town, where he is originally from. At 19, he moved to the US and could not speak English very well. Admittedly, since he had grown up speaking German, getting adjusted to another language was a significant challenge.
To fix that, he started taking acting classes to get rid of his German accent. And that was how he stepped into the world of acting.
But even then, he found it difficult to pronounce certain English words. And so, when he started his career with Soul Food, actress Nicole Ari Parker (also his wife now) would often help him with his lines. It took him a long time to learn his dialogues on his own and be comfortable delivering them.
Moreover, he considers it a compliment that people do not realize that he is not originally from the US because it shows how hard he has worked on himself.
When the interviewer asked him about being biracial, he answered that his mother is German and his father was Ghanaian.
