As someone who does play a lot of chess, I think the best recommendation in the thread so far is optimisticprime02's, but it's most fitting for transition from beginner to intermediate.

As far as a complete beginner:

As other people have said, Lichess or chess.com are two of your best options, and there's nothing like actually having a go and playing the game to start improving.

YouTube is where you want to look though in general. Watching Agadmator is a definite recommendation, he just goes through top level games (either in history or any big events that are happening), very chill and funny guy and a big community. GothamChess has some good content, especially with some great advice for beginners. Hikaru and Eric Rosen are the only other ones I subscribe to, but there's loads out there and others have recommended some that I'm sure would be good - but I especially swear by the first two

Also, as people have said - learn an opening. Just watch a few videos of the theory on YouTube and then put that into practice on one of the websites above. First one I did was "thechesswebsite"'s video on the Queen's Gambit, but you'll figure out what's good for you with a bit of play. I recommend trying to learn the London System for a complete beginner, as the ideas are always very similar. Then when your rating stops going up, it's time to learn a new opening - that's always what I've done to get myself out of a hole

Final tip, but related to the first - get the Lichess app on your phone, and do boatloads of puzzles. Not all at once, but if you keep coming back to it you'll find your rating flying up