  This review article presents historical developments and recent advances in
our understanding on the three-body forces and Efimov physics, from an
interdisciplinary viewpoint encompassing nuclear physics and cold atoms.
Theoretical attempts to elucidate the three-body force with the chiral
effective field theory are explained, followed by an overview of experiments
aimed at observing signatures of the nuclear three-body force. Some recent
experimental and theoretical works in the field of cold atoms devoted to
measuring and engineering three-body forces among atoms are also presented. As
a phenomenon arising from the three-body effect, Efimov physics in both cold
atoms and nuclear systems is reviewed.
