Playing the legendary king of Ithaca in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Matt Damon has unveiled yet another jaw-dropping physical transformation. When paparazzi photos from Favignana, Italy, dropped, the internet couldn’t help but wonder what his workout looked like.

In conversation with NFL stars the Kelce brothers on the ‘New Heights’ podcast, Matt Damon revealed that he completely changed his diet for Odyssey, “I literally, just because of this other thing I did with my doctor, stopped eating gluten. I used to walk around between 185 and 200 pounds.”

Damon revealed he had already dropped a considerable amount of weight on his doctor’s advice, but Nolan still wanted him leaner.

He further revealed, “I’m done. I’m gluten-free everything. I found a gluten-free beer.“It’s been so long since I’ve had gluten, I can’t tell if it’s good or not. So that’s a good sign.”

While Damon’s exact training regimen for Odyssey remains a mystery, this isn't the first time he has gone through a transformation for his role.

Matt Damon's routine for movie roles

For roles like Bourne, he prioritized functional calisthenics with his former trainer, Jason Walsh. Damon avoided a heavy workout due to his past shoulder and back issues.

“It’s about understanding the basics,' Walsh said in 2016. People always want to add more weight. We don’t even touch a weight; it’s all calisthenics work. It’s about connecting to the body again and then maybe putting weight on, or starting to hold moves for longer periods of time.”

Weighted pull-ups, push-ups, weighted single-leg squats, bear crawls, and planks comprised the majority of his workouts.

According to Walsh, Matt doesn’t like taking shortcuts to success. Whether it’s 5 a.m. or 11 p.m., tell him to be ready, and he will be.”We got to the point where we were doing 100 pull-ups two or three times a week.

“We’d see how many sets it takes to get 100. Once you lose some of that excess weight, pull-ups get a lot easier. He was doing 30-some pull-ups per set.”

While Damon certainly loves his calisthenics, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t indulge in gym workouts. For this role, he likely would have lifted some iron.

Set to release in July, the movie is expected to be a classic. Are you excited to see how Damon fares as King of Ithaca?

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Written by

Suryakant Das

Edited by

Joyita Das