In this paper we describe a novel strategy for carrying out lookups in Chord-based peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, wherein nodes are assumed to behave selfishly. This is in contrast to the traditional lookup schemes, which assume that nodes cooperate with each other and truthfully follow a given protocol in carrying out resource lookups. The proposed scheme also provides efficient and natural means for preventing free-riding problem in Chord without requiring prior trust relationships among nodes. In addition, we evaluate the performance of Chord for providing routing service in a network of selfish nodes and prove that it has good structural properties to be used in uncooperative P2P networks.