It stars Jack Black as Ignacio, a Catholic friar and secret lucha libre fan who moonlights as a luchador to earn money for the orphanage where he works.

Sergio Gutiérrez Benítez), a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador to support the orphanage he directed.

Though Ignacio cares deeply for the orphans, he is unable to provide decent meals for them due to a lack of funds.

One night, while collecting a bag of tortilla chips for the orphans, Ignacio gets mugged by a street thief named Steven.

Ignacio fights with the moniker "Nacho" to keep his identity secret, while Steven adopts the name "Esqueleto" (skeleton).

Steven climbs over a wall to get inside, where he discovers that in order to be considered a professional, one must be the last luchador standing in the ring at an upcoming free-for-all match.

Attending the party causes Ignacio to fall behind on his responsibilities at the orphanage, for which he angrily blames Steven, who retaliates by declaring he hates all orphans; they acrimoniously end their partnership.

Ignacio's secret is revealed to the entire monastery when his robe catches fire during Mass, exposing his wrestling costume and forcing him to confess to everyone.

He declares that he intends to fight at a battle royale for the right to take on Ramses for a cash prize, which he will use to buy a bus for the orphanage.

Jack Black was a fan of the film Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and its director Jared Hess, and the two met in Los Angeles to discuss collaborating.

Black was drawn to Hess' idea of a man of the Lord secretly living a life of violence via his love of lucha libre wrestling.

[4][15] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "It takes some doing to make a Jack Black comedy that doesn't work, but Nacho Libre does it".

[16] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle thought the comedy was "hit and miss, with good bits interrupted by dead patches".

[17] A video game adaptation of the film was published by Majesco Entertainment and was released for the Nintendo DS on October 26, 2006.

[18] In November 2006, Jack Black, when asked, expressed his interest in a sequel: "I sure hope so, I love working with Jared.

"[19] However, Jared Hess (who directed the film) revealed in October 2009 that Paramount had never approached him about doing a sequel to Nacho Libre, though he said he would "love to work with Black again".