Technologies are provided in embodiments for improving efficiency of metadata usage by memory protection checks. One example method includes detecting a read request for data in a memory, initiating a first access to the memory for a data cache line containing the data, and initiating a second access to the memory for a metadata cache line mapped to the data cache line, where the metadata cache line contains two or more metadata items for two or more memory protection checks to be performed based on the data cache line. The method may further include performing the two or more memory protection checks using, respectively, the two or more metadata items from the metadata cache line. In more specific embodiments, the two or more memory protection checks are performed substantially in parallel.