Zac Efron, whose appearance has changed over the past year and who has been the focus of plastic surgery rumors, has finally explained why. The High School Musical actor, 34, was questioned by Men’s Health about the truth of the stories that he had plastic surgery on his jaw after noticing him looking noticeably different in an Earth Day PSA shared in April 2021.
Speaking to the magazine, Efron acknowledged that his appearance had changed, but he attributed the change to a facial injury he sustained at home. Efron claimed that he broke his jaw while running through his house wearing socks. He crashed into a fountain’s corner, passed out, and awoke with his “chin bone… on his face,” he said.
His masseters, the muscles that raise the lower jaw, “just grew” as he recovered. Efron continued, “They just got big.” Regarding his opinion of people thinking he may have undergone a procedure, the actor said that he “definitely wouldn’t be able to do this work” if he “valued what other people thought of me to the extent that they may think I do.”
Efron added that his mother was the one who first told him he looked different. Efron has experienced other injuries over the years, including a broken jaw. Injuries he reportedly suffered while training include a blown-out back, broken wrist, dislocated shoulder, and torn ACL. After an incident in 2013, Efron broke his jaw and needed to have it wired shut. It’s unknown if the injury he mentioned in his interview with Men’s Health magazine is the same.