He has also worked as a bouncer, bartender, and personal trainer. Meloni worked as a construction worker prior to getting his acting break. After graduation, Meloni went to New York where he continued his studies with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre as well as the Center for the Media Arts. He studied acting at the University of Colorado at Boulder and graduated with a degree in history in 1983. Agnes School) in Alexandria, Virginia, and played quarterback on the football team. His paternal ancestry is Italian, his great grandfather was born in Sardinia. His maternal ancestry is French Canadian, and he is a descendant of Matthias Farnsworth. Meloni was born in Washington, D.C., the youngest of three children of Cecile (née Chagnon 1926–2016), a homemaker, and Charles Robert Meloni (1927–2012), an endocrinologist. 2.1 Oz and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
