The actor says his regimen for the Christopher Nolan epic involved “a lot of training and a really strict diet.”

Matt Damon slimmed down to his high school weight for The Odyssey: ‘I was in really good shape’

The actor says his regimen for the Christopher Nolan epic involved "a lot of training and a really strict diet."

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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January 7, 2026 4:31 p.m. ET

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Matt Damon in 'The Odyssey'. Credit:

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

- Matt Damon down dropped to 167 pounds to play Odysseus in *The Odyssey*.

- The actor explained in a podcast appearance that he stopped eating gluten: "It was a lot of training and a really strict diet."

- Damon added, "I haven't been that light since high school."

Matt Damon undertook an Odyssean challenge for his latest Christopher Nolan movie: slimming down to play an ancient Greek warrior.

The *Good Will Hunting* actor discussed his training regimen for *The Odyssey* in a new interview with Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce on their podcast *New Heights*.

"I had a beard like yours for like a year," he told Jason. "I was in really good shape. I lost a lot of weight. [Nolan] wanted me lean but strong."

The *Bourne Identity* star said that one dietary adjustment made all the difference in his fitness. "Just because of this other thing that I did with my doctor, I stopped eating gluten," he said. "I used to walk around at between 185 and 200, and I did that whole movie at 167. And I haven't been that light since high school. So it was a lot of training and a really strict diet."

Matt Damon and Himesh Patel in 'The Odyssey'.

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal Pictures

Damon said working with trainers to perfect his physique felt like participating in "a season" of a professional sport. "I imagine what that feels like for you guys, where you're preparing," he told the Kelces. "It's just part of your day, it's part of your job, and you get really routinized about it and kinda build your day around all that stuff."

The *Ocean's Eleven* actor also said he hasn't reintegrated gluten into his diet since completing his work on *The Odyssey*. "I'm done. I'm gluten-free everything," he said. "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."

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This isn't the first time Damon has transformed his body for a role. He previously gained 30 pounds to play the lead role in Steven Soderbergh's 2009 film *The Informant*. "I started eating like crazy and drinking dark beer. I definitely got doughy," he told ** at the time. "Between meals on set, I’d eat a No. 1 Value Meal at McDonald's and then Doritos on top of it. It was absolute heaven."

Elsewhere in the *New Heights* interview, Damon explained Nolan's technical innovations using large-format film cameras on *The Odyssey*. "On this one, it was 100 percent on IMAX. It was the first movie that was ever done all on IMAX," he said. "IMAX cameras are really loud. It sounds like a blender, like a Cuisinart in your face when the camera's close to you. So there's never been these dialogue [scenes in IMAX]. We couldn't have this conversation with a normal IMAX camera because you wouldn't be able to hear us."

Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon at an 'Oppenheimer' screening in 2024.

Noam Galai/Getty

Damon, who previously worked with Nolan on *Interstellar* and *Oppenheimer*, said that *The Odyssey* employed new ways of working around the noisy IMAX cameras for close-ups. "They built this giant thing around the IMAX for those dialogue scenes and a system of mirrors so your eyeline would be close to the camera and you could talk to the other actor," he explained. "The amount of work that went into figuring out how to do [that], because he wanted to do 100 percent IMAX, and he did it!"

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Damon also said he was blown away by the locations in which *The Odyssey* filmed, including Greece, Morocco, and Iceland. "We would get there and I'd just start laughing," he said. "I'd be like, 'Nobody has any business shooting here! Of course he wants to shoot here. That tracks.'"

He continued, "He has such a great crew. His crew is so badass. And everybody just maxed out on that movie, and we made all of our days. We actually finished ahead of schedule. It was an awesome experience."

*The Odyssey* hits theaters July 17. Watch Damon's full conversation with the Kelces above.

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