From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Shinichi Chiba  (born January 23, 1939), also known as Sonny Chiba, is a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later before an international audience. Description above from the Wikipedia article Sonny Chiba, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.