The article reviews the development and applications of chiral effective field theory (chiral EFT) in deriving nuclear forces from first principles. It highlights the progress in understanding two-nucleon and three-nucleon forces up to sixth and fifth orders of chiral perturbation theory, respectively. The authors discuss the challenges and successes in describing light and medium-mass nuclei using *ab initio* methods, emphasizing the importance of the symmetry energy in nuclear many-body systems. The article also explores the construction of equations of state for symmetric and neutron-rich nuclear matter, focusing on the impact of the symmetry energy on neutron skins and astrophysical systems. The physics of neutron-rich systems, from nuclei to compact stars, is influenced by the density dependence of the symmetry energy. The article concludes by comparing predictions with empirical constraints, particularly those from parity-violating electron scattering.The article reviews the development and applications of chiral effective field theory (chiral EFT) in deriving nuclear forces from first principles. It highlights the progress in understanding two-nucleon and three-nucleon forces up to sixth and fifth orders of chiral perturbation theory, respectively. The authors discuss the challenges and successes in describing light and medium-mass nuclei using *ab initio* methods, emphasizing the importance of the symmetry energy in nuclear many-body systems. The article also explores the construction of equations of state for symmetric and neutron-rich nuclear matter, focusing on the impact of the symmetry energy on neutron skins and astrophysical systems. The physics of neutron-rich systems, from nuclei to compact stars, is influenced by the density dependence of the symmetry energy. The article concludes by comparing predictions with empirical constraints, particularly those from parity-violating electron scattering.