In the Season 2 premiere of "Glee" Tuesday night (Sept. 20), Overstreet plays transfer student Sam Evans, whom Puck (Mark Salling) rather tactlessly asks, "Dude, your mouth is huge. How many tennis balls can you fit in there?"
"I laughed when I read that in the script," Overstreet tells Zap2it. "I mean, I always got compliments or comments on my lips because I do have big lips. They definitely write about the actors' actual features, which I think is funny. It's something everybody's thinking and when you actually hear it on the show, it's like 'I can't believe they said that.'"
The actor hails from Nashville, Tenn., and his unusual name is no accident, setting him on a musical path in life.
"My real name is Chord Overstreet," he confirms. "I actually got my name because my dad is in the music business as a songwriter. I was the third one in my family born, and there are three notes in a chord, so that's how they came up with my name."
Besides his name, Overstreet has his parents to thank for encouraging him early on to pursue music.
"I got my first instrument at Christmas when I was three or four," he says. "My dad and mom got me a mandolin. It was the only instrument that fit me because I was so small. I went straight from that into drums when I was six and then started playing guitar when I was seven or eight."
Fast forward to 2010, and the actor is now in Los Angeles, landing parts on "iCarly," in the "No Ordinary Family" pilot and for a recurring role on "Glee" -- once he gets past four auditions.
"It's great working with all the cast," he reveals. "I really think Jane Lynch is hilarious, she's got the best timing, she's one of the people I was really looking forward to working with, but I was also looking forward to working with [producer/writers Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan] -- those guys. Each episode we get is funnier than the next. It's all jokes and shenanigans."
As new kid Sam, he gets "discovered" by Finn (Cory Monteith) much in the same way Finn was discovered -- in the boys locker room, singing in the shower.
"It was interesting because I've sung in the shower a ton of times just not on camera," he explains. "It was one of those things that once you get in the shower you didn't want to get out and you didn't want to turn it off in between takes because it was so nice and hot. Once you turn it off in between takes it's kind of just like, "Okay, towels now" and you're shivering, but you do get very prune-y."
After the shower singing session, Sam gets recruited by Finn to try out for New Directions, and impresses the guys with an impromptu audition, singing "Billionaire." By the end of the episode, although he says he'll join the glee club, he backs down and decides to stick with football and takes over Finn's quarterback position.
Overstreet has been trained well and won't give away what's in store for his character in the upcoming season, including any possible love interests.
"You guys will just have to watch Season 2. I'm not really at liberty to reveal anything yet," he says, adding that he doesn't even know if he'll have any dancing scenes. "It's something that challenges me a little more, but anything that I can really work on, then it's something I'm all for."
He's also all for covering a John Mayer or Justin Timberlake song -- like "Losing My Way," "Cry Me a River" or T.I's "Dead and Gone" -- if the writers are inclined to put those in the script for him.
Besides catching Overstreet on "Glee," fans can also check out his MySpace page and Twitter account, but be warned, he's still a novice tweeter.
"I get on there every now and then and write a stupid little post like, 'Hey I'm going to the gym,'" he admits. "I gotta work on my tweeting skills I guess.
My brother [Nash Overstreet] and his band members are always tweeting like crazy so they were teaching me how to tweet.Then they left and went back to Tennessee and I never really picked it up so, if anyone has tips on tweeting let me know."
So, is he ready to be inundated with fans and all the fame that comes with "Glee"?
"I just don't know what to expect, you know?" he says. "It's going to be fun though."
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