United Kingdom, June 25 -- Christopher Meloni got punched and almost run over by patrons who tried not to pay their bill when he worked as a bouncer at a New York bar.

The harrowing experience happened before the 65-year-old actor landed the role of NYPD Detective Elliot Stabler on the NBC legal drama Law+Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999.

During the latest episode of the Thanks Dad With Ego Nwodim podcast, Christopher recalled: "It was a little dive bar on Bleecker Street that I worked at and, frantically, a waitress comes up to me and says. two girls ran out on the bill.

"And so me and the manager bust out onto Bleecker Street. And there was a fresh fall in snow, like half inch, quarter inch, on the ground. And the waitress goes, '...