Grizz Chapman, best known for his role as Grizz on the hit comedy 30 Rock, has died aged 52.

His cousin, the Harlem Globetrotter Donte Harrison, confirmed Chapman’s death on social media on Saturday.

No cause of death has been given but Harrison said Chapman died in his sleep on Friday “after years of fighting illness and dialysis”.

“Life gave my cousin Grizz Chapman some heavy battles, but he fought them with strength and dignity until the very end,” Harrison wrote.

The actor, who stood at 2.13 metres (7ft) tall, had been diagnosed with kidney disease and was a spokesperson for the National Kidney Foundation. While filming 30 Rock he spent a year in dialysis treatments, three days a week for four hours a day. He received a kidney transplant in 2010.

Chapman was born in Brooklyn in 1974. He first met his future 30 Rock costar Tracy Morgan while Chapman was working as a bouncer at a strip club and the two men became friends.

Chapman was working as a bodyguard when he was cast in a commercial and decided to switch to acting. “I made $20,000 for 40 minutes of work, so I thought I was in the wrong business at that point and I needed to change,” he said in a 2012 interview with CBR.

Despite changing careers for the money, Chapman loved the work: “Once I got into acting, I realised it’s more than just standing there. There’s more to it. So I took some acting classes and developed the craft and fell in love with it.”

Chapman’s breakout role was in Tina Fey’s comedy 30 Rock, in which he played the imposing but gentle bodyguard Grizz, one half of the entourage following the chaotic star Tracy Jordan, who was played by Morgan.

Chapman credited Morgan for helping him keep the job, telling CBR in 2012: “There were four members of the entourage originally but NBC came to Tina Fey and Tracy and said they couldn’t pay for all four. So Tracy said we’re gonna keep just two guys, which included me. I made the cut. I worked hard to get there. I worked really hard.”

Chapman played Grizz in 80 episodes of the beloved comedy, which aired between 2006 and 2013. But afterwards he struggled with typecasting due to his height.

“I mean, why can’t a seven-foot guy play a doctor?” he told the Hollywood Reporter in 2013. “Why can’t I be a teacher? Why can’t I be a football coach? Why can’t I be a cab driver? Anything. Anything else than that. I can cry. I can do those things that they think the big guys can’t do. So just give us a chance.”

Kevin Brown, who played Jordan’s other bodyguard, Dot Com, wrote of Chapman: “May he RIP.”

His costar Judah Friedlander wrote that Chapman was always “getting big laughs at the table reads and on camera”, while Maulik Pancholy said he was “so kind, so sweet, and his huge heart brought laughter to so many. I’m grateful we became family over a seven-year run.”

Chapman also appeared in films and shows including The Cobbler, Money Monster, Blue Bloods and The Blacklist.

He is survived by his wife, Diana, and their two children.