We present a novel data-driven strategy to choose the hyperparameter $k$ in the $k$-NN regression estimator without using any hold-out data. We treat the problem of choosing the hyperparameter as an iterative procedure (over $k$) and propose using an easily implemented in practice strategy based on the idea of early stopping and the minimum discrepancy principle. This model selection strategy is proven to be minimax-optimal over some smoothness function classes, for instance, the Lipschitz functions class on a bounded domain. The novel method often improves statistical performance on artificial and real-world data sets in comparison to other model selection strategies, such as the Hold-out method, 5-fold cross-validation, and AIC criterion. The novelty of the strategy comes from reducing the computational time of the model selection procedure while preserving the statistical (minimax) optimality of the resulting estimator. More precisely, given a sample of size $n$, if one should choose $k$ among $\left\{ 1, \ldots, n \right\}$, and $\left\{ f^1, \ldots, f^n \right\}$ are the estimators of the regression function, the minimum discrepancy principle requires the calculation of a fraction of the estimators, while this is not the case for the generalized cross-validation, Akaike's AIC criteria, or Lepskii principle.