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Music was an integral part of the Potter household. At age 7, Chris began playing drums and his earliest performance memories are tied to the twin pursuits of music and acting. As he once told writer Wayne Glidden, "It was in me from the time I was very young."

Also in Chris from a young age, encouraged and nurtured by his father, was a passion and talent for athletics. Not surprising considering his father, uncle and a cousin each had successful professional football careers. Instead of acting, Chris dreamed, in his youth, of a professional sports career. While he might be absent from a high school year book class photo (represented by the apt note "too busy"), he can be found in the Junior and Senior football team shots. He also played in the highly competitive Canadian Juniors hockey and left only due to concerns by his father about Chris's future education. At Oakridge Secondary School, Chris was a football star and captain of the team his senior year. But basically he just liked sports. And he was gifted. Area sportswriter Jim Kernaghan observed, "Had he not focused on theatre early though, it's not inconceivable to imagine him following in the cleated footsteps of others in the Potter clan."

Along with a strong athletic program, however, Oakridge Secondary School has an excellent theater department led by Art Fidler, noted drama instructor and director of area amateur productions. Fidler first remembers Chris following a friend, in hopes of meeting girls, to an outdoor production Fidler directed. Unable to sit around just observing for long, Chris was soon assisting backstage. Even Chris admitted, in an interview with Craig Miller of Spectrum magazine, that the attraction of the theatre in those days was the attraction of the opposite sex. "I started in theater when I was a kid, and did it for years and years, hoping for a chance to meet girls, really. [Laughter] I was at that age." Once at Oakridge, Chris attended the drama courses and participated in the annual school shows. During the run of "Damn Yankees", Fidler remembers having to go on for Chris one night as the Commissioner of Baseball. According to Fidler, Chris had been "sucker punched" by a much older and larger student while "playing Sir Gallahad, defending the honor of a young lady in the play." Later that day, Judy Potter called Fidler to report "Chris had a concussion. But he was back on stage the next night."