I got similar pleasure to chess out of number theory. I could never prove Goldbach's Conjecture, however.
Hobbies Better Than Chess

I act professionally with regional theatre groups, i play the saxaphone, i play baseball, i ski, i read (mostly shakespeare), i ride my bike, play ping pong, throw darts. And then of course I play chess (though I'm not very good. my USF rating is only like 1010. My online rating is in like the high 1400's though!). I'm a pretty busy 13 year old. :P

Watching UFC. UFC is like chess, but the stakes/consequences are much higher for the competitors.
Ultimate fa$%#ot cuddling.
Say that to Anderson Silva's face. Then read some of Reuben Fine's writing on the psychology of chess.
Nah, he'd probably start hugging me or something, and I'm not into dudes.

What other hobbies do you chess players participate in?
I have a wife, a kid, a house, a garden, and a research job. Five hobbies is a bit much, but I need them to fill the few moments per day I feel there should be more to life than chess.

I always thought there should be more to life than doing the chores.

I play tennis, cello, I use computer science to write fun programs, I mess around in linux, I play lots of board games (settlers of catan, puerto rico), I build weird things, and I'm a math and physics major.
Chess is great. It's something, one of the very few things, that really has a one to one correspondance between what you put in and what you get out of it. No luck, no one else's fault but your own.
I've always read there is 0% luck factor in Chess but I disagree. You can make a mistake and be lucky that your opponent didn't see it, assuming you go on to win the game.
Study of history....or science....or relgion. Ok, academic study of anything.