Ashton Kutcher’s BJJ Journey

Christopher Ashton Kutcher is a famous  American model and actor. He is  best known for his role Michael in That 70’s Show. Kutcher is a BJJ brown belt under Rigan Machado and is quite an active martial artist and wrestler.

Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on 7th February 1978. His ancestry includes in Czech, German, and Irish origins. He was born into a relatively conservative family. He had an elder sister and a fraternal twin brother, who suffered a heart transplant and cerebral palsy when they were young. Kutcher was quite depressed because of their medical issues. 

Kutcher attended the Washington High School in Cedar Rapids before relocating to Homestead, Iowa, where he transferred to Clear-Creek Amana High School. During that time, he developed a passion for acting and participated in school plays and dramas. However, his image was tarnished when he broke into the school one night to steal money. Later, he enrolled at the University of Iowa to study Biochemical Engineering, inspired by his brother’s heart ailment.  However, he was expelled due to behavior issues. He was approached by a model scout At The Airline bar in Iowa City, Iowa, Kutcher’s fate changed completely when a model scout approached him. This chance encounter helped him carve out a career in modeling and eventually acting.

Kutcher is famous for his modeling, acting, technology startups, and an involvement in the international human rights organizations. He participated in an IMTA competition in 1988, after which he signed a contract with Next Modeling agency, appeared in ads for Calvin Klein, and worked as a model in Paris and Milan. His acting career made him one of the richest actors in the world. He starred in famous television series, including Two and a Half Men, and The Ranch (Netflix), and appeared in a dating show named The Bachelor. His famous Shows also include; Vengeance, Your Place of Mine, Family Guy, Shark Tank, and That 90’s Show.

He also ventured into large investments in different tech startups in venture capital including; Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Shazam, Soundcloud, and ResearchGate. With these profitable investments, he and his team turned $30 million into $250 million. He also developed an International Human Rights NGO alongside owning a restaurant named Dolce in Los Angeles.

Kutcher shared about starting BJJ training while shooting an ad campaign for a fashion brand, Colcci in Sao Paulo, Brazil”. He wanted to add grappling to his regular workout routine. His high school wrestling skills gave him an advantage and confidence on the mat.

Ashton Kutcher started his BJJ journey in 2012 at the Ricardo De La Riva Academy, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He began training BJJ to get in shape and achieve his fitness goals. What started out as a fitness regimen eventually became a passion. Kutcher is only one step away from the  black belt level. Let’s have a look at his BJJ journey:

• 2013: Kutcher began BJJ training with Rigan Machado
• Early 2014: Promotion to Blue Belt
• Late 2014: Promotion to Purple Belt
• Late 2019: Promotion to Brown Belt 

Kutcher began his BJJ training under Rigan Machado, who is a well-known coach in the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu community. Kutcher’s participation in the classes was limited to warm-up, technical drills, and full-contact sparring. Kutcher also got a chance to get BJJ training from the BJJ celebrity, Craig Jones.

Rigan and his brother together called The Machado brothers, Rigan and his brother, have trained celebrities to  certain degrees. Rigan Machado is a coral belt, who is renowned for creating a BJJ routine, the Flow Jiu-Jitsu, for celebrities. In this BJJ routine, celebrities did not have to go undergo tough sparring sessions or compete in competitions. But they still acquired necessary fighting skills for self defense. Ashton Kutcher is the perfect example of a Flow Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. He is seen fighting against big BJJ names and receiving praises from them as well.

For quick refernce, check out this  video featuring Ashton Kutcher against the BJJ Black Belt holder Paulo Costa, currently ranked number 2 for the middleweight UFC Championship.

Within two years of training i.e. at the beginning of 2014, Kutcher received his BJJ blue belt, which demonstrated that he was making progress in the sport.

Ashton’s eagerness and steadfast nature kept him training. Due to perseverance,   Kutcher  achieved his purple belt by the end of 2014, the same year  he got his blue belt. The BJJ fans were quite shocked. Some even questioned the authenticity of Kutcher’s achievement. After all,   earning a purple belt in such a short time period was not a common occurrence. Kutcher’s coach Rigan clarified all doubts by stating that Kutcher had a solid background in martial arts and wrestling. His background along with his determination, promoted him to purple belt in such a short time.

After Kutcher’s achievement, Joe Rogan, a celebrity BJJ black belt himself, praised Ashton Kutcher’s jiu-jitsu skills in the following words; 

In 2019, Ashton Kutcher was promoted to a brown belt level,  the second highest  rank in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Kutcher again made it to the headlines of BJJ magazines  after his brown belt promotion. Machado posted the below caption on his social media handles to applaud  Kutcher for his brown belt promotion.

Kutcher received the brown belt after five years of training under Rigan Machado. Kutcher owes his fast belt progression to his sound wrestling background. A few years ago Ashton Kutcher’s coach was asked by the reporters of TMZ Sports, “how Kutcher would do against a UFC fighter and BJJ brown belt Conor McGregor in a grappling match. To which he replied;

The following video shows Rigan Machado awarding Kutcher a brown belt.

Kutcher’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu expertise has been uncertain even though he progressed to the purple belt rank in less than two years. This is because his fighting skills were never put to test in a competitive environment. Nonetheless, Kutcher’s brown belt indicates that he is a skilled grappler, or so he is expected to be.  Rigan Machado also has a reputation of awarding brown belts only to the deserving practitioners. In addition to this, Ashton Kutcher undertake sparring sessions, unlike other celebrities who learn BJJ only for their movie and film stunts. Kutcher, on the other hand, has technical proficiency and sparring experience, which make him really a good BJJ fighter.

Being a romantic comedy movie star, whose scenes lack action and fights, Ashton Kutcher has never demonstrated any BJJ stunts or moves in any of his movies. However, he is capable of performing such stunts himself if need arise.

Ashton Kutcher’s Bjj workout is designed by Rigan Machado (an 8th-degree coral belt). The detailed workout plan is provided below:

The routine incorporates a warm-up, BJJ training, stretching, and cooling down. This workout focuses on working out core muscles, strength conditioning, and improving flexibility and balance.

The 15-minute warm-up comprises of the following body weight exercises that target various muscle groups:

• Pushups
• Pull-ups
• Jogging
• Crunches
• Bear Crawls
• Mountain Climbers
• Jumping Jacks

• Choke-Triangle Choke from Guard
• Escape- Scissor Sweep from Guard
• Submission- Armbar from Guard

The training session is concluded after the performing the following stretches:

• Pigeon pose
• Lying hamstring stretch
• Cross-body rear-dealt stretch

One of the best grapplers in the world, Craig Jones has designed lessons to exploit weaknesses in takedown positions and capitalize on submissions like anaconda, Peruvian necktie, Darce choke, and many more. Recently,  a rolling session video of Craig Jones with the American Actor Ashton Kutcher went viral, but it  faced massive backlash from the BJJ community due to  doubting about Kutcher’s brown belt level. Craig Jones in one of his interviews explained what really happened and how the rolling session went:

As from the video it is quite evident that Craig Jones was not giving Kutcher a tough time as the Australian grappler is known to easily submit the most seasoned grapplers.

Ashton Kutcher is well known for his passion for combat sport. This allowed him to achieve the purple belt rank, only a few months after acquiring the blue belt. His determination earned him a brown belt in 2019.

Yes. Ashton Kutcher trains BJJ and has earned a brown belt after consistent training.

Ashton Kutcher began BJJ training in 2012.

Ashton Kutcher was  nearly 35 years old when he started training BJJ.

2023 marks the 11th year of Kutcher’s BJJ training making him a great martial artist and informed BJJ practitioner.

Kutcher is only one promotion away from the black belt rank as he is already a brown belt.

In 2019, Kutcher was awarded a brown belt by his coach Rigan Machado.

Rigan Machado is Ashton Kutcher’s coach. Machado is a proficient martial artist and BJJ coral belt from Los Angeles, California. He is one of the celebrity BJJ coaches.

BJJ has a high injury risk. Since Kutcher is an actor, he cannot risk getting seriously injured as it will negatively impact his acting career. Therefore, he does not compete in tournaments.

Ashton Kutcher specializes in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling. 

Kutcher is not a competitive BJJ fighter despite his vast knowledge of techniques.  But because he has been training BJJ for over 10 years now, he can be regarded as a real martial artist.

Ashton Kutcher is a prominent actor and martial artist. He is widely considered one of the world’s top martial artists. Kutcher’s dedication and keenness toward BJJ training indicate that he will eventually achieve the black belt rank.

Photo Credit: @riganmachado