Zac Efron finally addresses cause of 2021 face transformation

Zac Efron finally set the record straight on his face transformation one year after sparking plastic surgery rumors.

The actor told Men’s Health in his October 2022 cover story, published Wednesday, that he shattered his jaw while running in his house with socks on.

Efron, 34, said he slipped, hit the corner of a fountain, passed out and woke up to his “chin bone … hanging off” his face.

Amid the “High School Musical” star’s recovery, his facial muscles got “really, really big” to compensate for the injury, so he worked with a physical therapist to counteract their growth.

When Efron took a break in Australia, the masseter [muscles] just grew,” the former Disney Channel star, who previously broke his jaw in 2013, explained with a shrug.

Zac Efron
The actor made headlines for his large jaw in April 2021.
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Fans first noticed Efron’s transformed face in April 2021, which led to rumors that he had gone under the knife.

The following month, his friend Kyle Sandilands denied Efron had work done.

“It’s like getting a Picasso and having a kid finger paint all over it,” Sandilands quipped on “The Kyle and Jackie O” radio show in May 2021. “Why bother? … I would know if he’d had any plastic surgery.”

Zac Efron
The injury stemmed from a shattered jaw, he explained to Men’s Health.
Photograph by Ture Lillegraven

Efron’s mom, Starla Baskett, was the one to clue her son into the plastic surgery speculation, as he chooses to remain off of social media.

The “17 Again” star did not appear fazed, telling Men’s Health, “If I valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work.”

Efron described more injuries elsewhere in the interview, from a dislocated shoulder and torn ACL to a broken wrist and blown-out back, although those occurred when he was training.

While the “Hairspray” star now has a mindful exercise routine with yoga, stretching and self-massaging, he worked out rigorously while filming “Baywatch.”

Zac Efron
The “Baywatch” star detailed his struggles with insomnia, depression and agoraphobia.
Photograph by Ture Lillegraven

The experience led to a “dark depression” and “insomnia,” Efron told the magazine, explaining that the 2017 movie “burned [him] out.”

The “Down to Earth with Zac Efron” star, who did not feel better until six months after filming wrapped, remembered, “I had a really hard time recentering. Ultimately they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up.”

Efron noted that he also suffers from agoraphobia.

“I just don’t go out,” he shared, calling “people in large groups” a “trigger” for his anxiety disorder, which is characterized by extreme fear of entering crowded spaces.

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