I am unsure about your intend to remove leading `_` this might lead to `chown: _user not found` when `chown`ing
try
awk -F: '/^#/ { next } {printf "chown %s \"%s\"\n",$1,$6} ' my_etc_passwd
where
- `-F:` tell awk to use `:` as separator
- `/^#/ { next }` skip line starting with `#`
- likewise add `/^_/ { next }` to skip line starting with `_` (if need be)
- next pattern/action print chown command.
If result look OK, just pipe to `bash`