The Top Celebrities That Are SHOCKINGLY Good At Martial Arts

Celebrities are mostly just regular people that got famous through music, sports, cinema or any other method which exposed them to a global audience. As you’d expect, some of these people have an avid interest in various forms of martial arts. This makes sense as martial arts are a great way to keep fit, as well as have fun at the same time. Also in most martial arts gyms, there will be no special treatment or promotions for celebrity practitioners, so they will have to work just as hard as everyone else to reach their goals. As we all know, technique in martial arts is not something that can be purchased for money and can only be paid for in blood, sweat and tears.

It should be noted that martial artists who then became actors have been excluded from this list since they are obviously head and shoulders above any kind of hobbyist. Actors such as Jackie Chan, Jason Statham, Chuck Norris, Donnie Yen, Jet Li and others will not be included since they primarily feature in martial arts films and would likely not even be famous if it were not for martial arts. There is absolutely no doubt that these actors are outstanding martial artists, but they have all became famous due to their martial arts ability rather than anything else.

The Top 16 Celebrities That Train Martial Arts

Steve Irwin

A little known fact about Steve Irwin was his love for mixed martial arts. Ex UFC fighter and fellow Australian Kyle Noke used to train MMA with Steve Irwin every Wednesday morning at 7am. In fact, Irwin loved fighting so much that he built a cage in his own zoo so people could train.

If you weren’t to know about Kyle Noke’s former employer building cages, you can see that Irwin is an excellent wrestler with a superb base by his ability to wrestle animals. Even the most experienced professional fighters would likely not fare well against a crocodile, something which Irwin would do in in the wild outdoors. It’s no surprise then to know that Irwin trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Dan Higgins and Greg Jackson, receiving his blue belt shortly before he tragically passed away.

Kevin James

It may surprise you that King of Queens star Kevin James is a huge fan of MMA and trained regularly for the movie Here Comes the Boom in which he bizarrely plays a biology teacher who needs to have an MMA fight in order to earn money. Although James was overweight before he began training more seriously for the role, he had already trained Muay Thai, as well as many other martial arts for a long time, so learning the fighting skills for the role were not as difficult as some may have thought.

Shockingly, it turns out that the man who plays Paul Blart in Mall Cop is actually a very athletic man who played college football. In an interview, former middleweight champion Chris Weidman said that Kevin James is an extremely solid MMA fighter who has trained in various disciplines for over 15 years.

Ed O’Neill

If you’ve ever watched an episode of Modern Family, you may think that Ed O’Neill is an old actor with no interest in anything physical or violent. However, this couldn’t be more wrong. A supreme young athlete, O’Neill was actually signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the late 1960’s and despite never playing a professional game, was clearly a physical specimin.

It comes as less of a surprise then to know that Ed O’Neill is a legitimate BJJ black belt having received it from Rorion Gracie, the eldest child of BJJ pioneer Helio Gracie. O’Neill has shown his comittment for the martial art and is clearly not in it for the status of bragging rights since he is in his mid 70’s and has been training BJJ for over 20 years.

Adriana Lima

Best known for her modelling, you aren’t going to find Adriana Lima anywhere near a boxing ring any time soon. However, for a person who’s career is dependent on the look of their face, Lima is still a fan of martial arts.

Lima is well known to keep her figure thanks to gruelling boxing based workouts and is an avid supporter of womens boxing in general. In addition to this she is a practitioner of Capoeira, which is a dance-based martial art created by former slaves in Brazil. This requires excellent movement, mobility and core strength.

Mickey Rourke

You can see by the body of Mickey Rourke in the wrestler that he is a man who really trains hard and looks after himself considering he is almost 70 years old. There is no doubt about it that Mickey Rourke is not your average actor and has a true passion for boxing. His amateur career consisted of 27 wins and 3 losses and has been concussed several times.

During the early 1990’s Rourke had 8 professional boxing matches which ended in 6 wins and 2 draws. Rourke did not make a lot of money from these fights as they took place in cities such as Joplin, Missouri – a far cry away from Madison Square Garden.

There are not too many actors that would give up a successful career in order to be punched in the face for significantly less money. One last point to mention is that Rourke also holds a BJJ blue belt from 10th planet instructor Scott Epstein.

Joe Rogan

The former fear factor host who is best known for his very own JRE podcast is a well known practitioner of martial arts. Although Joe Rogan did not start his career as a UFC commentator, he is good friends with Dana White and initially had success as both a small time actor and comedian.

Rogan is arguably the best celebrity practitioner of martial arts having competed at state level in full contact taekwondo, as well as being a black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu under legendary 10th planet founder Eddie Bravo. There is not really another famous person who has anywhere near the level of skill and dedication that Joe Rogan has towards martial arts as it is a real passion for the Newark born comic.

If you were left unconvinced by this, please watch the clip below which shows one of the greatest fighters of all time (Georges St Pierre) discuss with Joe Rogan about how to generate so much power from a spinning kick.

Caity Lotz

Originally a backing dancer for Avril Lavigne, Caity Lotz has come a long way since the early 2000’s. She is now a fairly well known actress having featured in Mad Men, The Flash and Batwoman.

Lotz also has a fairly impressive resume of martial arts and trains parkour which certainly helps with athleticism and physical conditioning. Perhaps the best example of her fighting ability is shown in Legends of Tomorrow where she showcases an impressive display of swordsmanship. A well rounded martial artist, Lotz is a practitioner of Muay Thai, taekwondo, wushu and krav maga.

Taylor Lautner

Best known as the shapeshifting Jacob Black in the Twilight saga, Taylor Lautner has some hidden skills that you would have no idea about, had it not been caught on video. Like many kids, Lautner started off learning karate aged 6 where he progressed to black belt by age 8. Whilst this is not a massive acheivement given that karate belts are often handed out like candy, his true skills can be seen below.

The video clip shows Lautner performing an extremely impressive wushu routine which is one of the hardest martial arts to learn. Whilst the practicality of this martial art in a street fight is questionable to say the least – it is at least extremely difficult to pull off such an athletic routine with such fantastic hand-eye co-ordination.

Guy Ritchie

Best known for his movies Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, as well as his ex-wife Madonna, Guy Ritchie is a serious martial artist. He began training Shotokan karate at the age of 7, but perhaps more impressive is his grappling resume. Ritchie holds black belts in both Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, with the latter being notoriously hard to obtain. Furthermore, he has trained under Roger Gracie in London and was awarded his black belt by Renzo Gracie.

Ritchie has also been known to grapple with fellow Brit and Hollywood actor Jason Statham, who is also extremely well known for his proficiency in a variety of martial arts.

Idris Elba

In 2017, Idris Elba decided that he was going to take a break from acting and pursue a lifelong ambition of having a professional kickboxing fight. At the time Elba was in his mid 40’s and had already featured in hit TV shows such as Luther and The Wire. In short, this change of direction in career looked nothing more than a publicity stunt or a mid-life crisis until Elba proved his critics wrong.

The fight is the main feature of a 3 part documentary series which details the chronicles of Elba’s transition from being one of the most well recognized actors to a kickboxing ring. Elba won the fight by TKO in the very first round.

Although Elba does not have a long and illustrious career in martial arts, he did prove that he was not another spoilt Hollywood actor, trained extremely hard and got his reward. Unfortunately for fans of the British superstar, he has since been banned from getting in the ring again by both his mother and wife.

Wesley Snipes

A true mixed martial artist, it is easy to see how Snipes was selected for his most famous role as vampire hunter, Blade. Wesley Snipes holds a 6th dan black belt in shotokan karate as he has trained since the age of 12. It should be noted that shotokan is one of the toughest forms of the art, as well as a 2nd degree black belt in taekwondo. He has also trained Capoeira and Brazilian jiu-jitsu but is not graded in these martial arts.

It is well documented that Snipes has had an exchange of words with fellow celebrity martial artist Joe Rogan. Sadly for MMA fans, a fight never came to fruition, but it left people wondering who would win in this exchange of real martial artists.

Tom Hardy

Although he is an international superstar and has featured in some of the most famous movies and TV series of our generation, he is also a big fan of combat sports. In the 2011 film, Warrior – Tom Hardy plays an MMA fighter who enters a $5 million winner takes all tournament. If you’ve seen the fight sequences in this movie then it is quite obvious that the British born actor knows exactly what he is doing and isn’t a complete novice.

In his role for the movie Hardy trained with former Cage Warriors and Bellator fighter Nathan Jones 5 times per week so is no stranger to the world of MMA. Hardy is also heavily involved in the BJJ charity Re-org where he is a trustee and blue belt under instructor and founder Sam Sheriff.

Katheryn Winnick

Katheryn Winnick is an actress, but in her youth was primarily a martial artist. You may know her best for her role as Lagertha – who is the wife of main character Ragnar Lothbrok in hit TV series Vikings.

Winnick does not just have acting skills and has a degree in kinesiology from the university of Toronto. To help her pay tuition during this period, Winnick ran 3 different taekwondo schools during her early 20’s teaching the kickboxing art to both children and adults, some of whom were actors. This helped her get her big break in TV as she rose to stardom throughout her later life.

Wiz Khalifa

A true martial arts success story. Wiz Khalifa was once a skinny rapper that liked to drink and smoke, but after finding martial arts he put on 40lbs of muscle and went through an incredible physical transformation.

Wiz Khalifa credits his younger cousins for getting him in to MMA, telling Joe Rogan “I was tired of getting my ass whooped”. This has led to Wiz Khalifa becoming proficient in both BJJ as well as kickboxing. When he first started training BJJ it was with Rigan Machado in Los Angeles, as well as Unbreakable gym (also in LA) for muay thai.

Outside of the gym, Wiz Khalifa is friends with MMA fighters Chuck Lidell, Uriah Hall and the Diaz brothers. He has expressed that he would like an MMA fight but would need to be paid a lot of money since he can make a lot more by simply rapping.

Paul Walker

Paul Walker was an avid practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and trained under black belt Ricardo Miller until his untimely death in 2013. Although Walker died as a brown belt, Miller awarded his family a posthumous black belt which was alleged to have been placed in his coffin.

This can be seen in the Fast & Furious movies with various grappling scenes since Walker wanted to show BJJ rather than a typical action sequence featuring kicks and punches only. Unlike many other celebrity BJJ practitioners, Walker is said to have trained properly and not asked for early promotions.

Sean Hannity

Once laughed at live on air, Sean Hannity is surprisingly a huge fan of martial arts and claims with martial arts “you’re all in or you’re not all in at all” and has also stated that he trains almost every day by getting up early before work. When questioned about which martial arts he trains, Hannity stated he does a mixture of striking, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and krav maga.

Although Sean Hannity is not the first name that springs to mind when it comes to mixed martial arts, he clearly is a big fan and has even trained with Chuck Lidell after featuring him on his TV show.