In a recent video, Hollywood actor Tom Hardy gave viewers a glimpse of his Brazilian jiu-jitsu knowledge as the brown belt calmly walked someone through an armbar from mount.
“Use people mode to really activate those ribs,” he says. “All the way to close the gas. With your heel on this tail.”
He breaks it down step by step.
“From here, this is going to break it. Snap, snap. But this is the engine. We’re going to push the leg down. Bring your leg over the head. Switch it to the back of the head, knees together. Sit down in two positions with your heavy leg on the chest. Hold the grip so you don’t have to pull off.”
There’s nothing staged about it. No performance. Just someone who has put in the years passing along what he’s absorbed.
That credibility is a big part of why older comments from Hardy about his jiu-jitsu experience have been circulating again this week, finding a new and appreciative audience.
When a reporter asked him how the journey was going, Hardy didn’t reach for something polished. “It sucks,” he said, with a knowing smile that anyone familiar with the sport will immediately recognize.
Hardy, who earned his brown belt in January 2026, wasn’t performing modesty. He was just being accurate about what jiu-jitsu actually is.
Hardy began training around 2018, walking into a gym in West London at 40 years old. He has described the experience of finding jiu-jitsu as discovering something that provides “honest confidence” and a meditative counterweight to his career.
“Now it’s more of a meditation or relaxing,” he said some years back. “I have no competitive spirit.” He elaborated: “I don’t need to win, I don’t care. I always get beaten, but that’s okay.”
That perspective did not stop him from competing. He earned his blue belt in 2020 and entered tournaments in 2022, winning gold medals at blue belt events in both Wolverhampton and Milton Keynes. He was not an easy out.
One opponent from that period put it plainly: “Probably the toughest competitor I have ever had. He certainly lived up to his Bane character.”
His purple belt came in June 2023 from Tomasz Rydzewski, a Roger Gracie black belt. His brown belt arrived in January 2026, awarded by Sonny Weston, head instructor at SWBJJ Horsham BJJ, during a Tom DeBlass seminar. DeBlass, a Ricardo Almeida black belt of Renzo Gracie lineage, has publicly affirmed Hardy’s credentials, as has Craig Jones.
Over the course of his training, Hardy has worked alongside Renzo Gracie, Roger Gracie, John Danaher, and members of the Daisy Fresh team. He has also undergone two knee surgeries tied to training, one from a sweep and another from a meniscus tear.
Despite that, he maintains a schedule of two to three sessions per week while on set and ramps up to five per week when he has more time available.
He also serves as head ambassador for REORG, a charity that delivers jiu-jitsu instruction to military veterans and first responders.
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