Jason Momoa Reveals Near-Death Experience That Made Him Quit Smoking

Jason Momoa is sharing how he was scared straight from smoking again after a near-death surfing experience.

The Chief of War actor, 46, recalled on the Monday, August 11, episode of the “SmartLess” podcast how he and a group of friends once surfed Peʻahi, a big wave surfing break in Maui, Hawaii, when he struggled to overcome the torrential waves.

Momoa said the leash on his paddle snapped about “seven miles into” the surf. “It’s so windy on Maui, so the board just went… I couldn’t see it anymore,” he shared, noting that he was left stranded in the water and began to drown.

“I took quite a few [waves] on the head. They were pretty big, like 10-foot Hawaiian waves,” he said, adding that his friends couldn’t see him. “The waves were so big they basically took my shorts off. I reached down, put my shorts back on.”

At this point, Momoa began to think about his family, he said.

“I looked in… my daughter at that time was three months old, and I just lost my s***,” he said. “I couldn’t move anymore. My arms and my legs gave up … I was out there for a while.”

Momoa said he found the wherewithal to dig his feet into the coral of the outer reef as he was hit by another wave. “I’m in the middle of the ocean,” he said. “I could barely put my lips above it just to breathe and get a break, but I had already given up. So it’s like, you’ve already given up and died and have a second chance at it. I still stayed up for 10 minutes and I was hanging on the side of this reef.”

Eventually, one of his friends found him and helped him to safety, however, his feet were “covered in blood” from the coral.

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The Aquaman star said that after narrowly avoiding being pulled underwater by the waves, he made a big lifestyle change — one that he’d previously been unable to commit to.

“I used to smoke,” he said. “I used to smoke two, three packs a day. I couldn’t stop for my kids, couldn’t stop for my ex. I couldn’t stop smoking. The moment I came out, I never smoked again.”

Momoa began dating Lisa Bonet in 2005 and the two tied the knot more than a decade later in 2017 before divorcing in 2024. They share two children: daughter Lola Iolani, 18, and son Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha, 16.