  We have developed a CHi-square cOde for parameteRized modelIng and
characteriZation of phOtometry and Spectrophotometry (CHORIZOS). CHORIZOS can
use up to two intrinsic free parameters (e.g. temperature and gravity for
stars; type and redshift for galaxies; or age and metallicity for stellar
clusters) and two extrinsic ones (amount and type of extinction). The code uses
chi-square minimization to find all models compatible with the observed data in
the model N-dimensional (N=1,2,3,4) parameter space. CHORIZOS can use either
correlated or uncorrelated colors as input and is especially designed to
identify possible parameter degeneracies and multiple solutions. The code is
written in IDL and is available to the astronomical community. Here we present
the techniques used, test the code, apply it to a few well-known astronomical
problems, and suggest possible applications. As a first scientific result from
CHORIZOS, we confirm from photometry the need for a revised
temperature-spectral type scale for OB stars previously derived from
spectroscopy.
