According to news reports Chris Tucker made between $50–65 million USD in less than a decade and decided to live off the principal for a few years. That “few years” turned into nearly a decade and in the interim Tucker got divorced and remarried, costing him a sizable amount of wealth.
What really seems to have halted his career were the series of financial problems that he’s undergone for more than a decade. Apparently, Tucker not only ran through most of his fortune, he also failed to pay state and federal taxes on his earnings. While it appeared that Tucker had come to a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service and at least one state, according to news reports from November and December of 2021 (See below) Tucker is being accused of not paying at least $9 million USD in federal taxes and fines.
Unfortunately for Tucker, his extended hiatus from Hollywood allowed performers like Kevin Hart to fill in his niche and with his financial issues, Tucker would have to either demand higher levels of compensation (which he can no longer justify) or he would have to work far more often a la Nicolas Cage. Tucker will be 52 in 2022 and with his biggest projects 15–20 years in the past, it seems unlikely that he’ll ever return to his earlier position in the industry.
So while Chris Tucker may have wanted to take an extended break in the past, at this point given his recent lack of success and his myriad financial issues, it’s unlikely that he’ll ever return to the success he experienced in the late 1990s and early 2000s.