Born in Guatemala, Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada is of Cuban and Guatemalan descent. His family immigrated to the United States when he was just five months old, bouncing from state to state until settling down in Miami. Quickly drawn to both acting and music, he played lead guitar and sang vocals in a marginally successful ska-punk band called The Blinking Underdogs. Upon his acceptance into Juilliard’s acting program, he put music aside to focus on the talent that would eventually make him famous.

No stranger to fitness, Oscar Isaac’s workout routine took shape around the same time as his major league career. To prepare for the role of a reclusive (and surprisingly shredded) tech billionaire in 2014’s “Ex Machina,” the actor teamed up with Madonna’s former personal trainer, Josh Holland. In terms of diet, Isaac “tried to eat clean, but more calories than I normally eat,” as he once stated in an interview with Men’s Journal.

Playing a Marvel superhero requires both physical stamina and a range of martial arts techniques, and Oscar Isaac was definitely up to the task. He even shared some of his progress through the Instagram account for Mad Gene Media, the production company he co-founded with his wife. In the first video, he can be seen blocking, punching, practicing his spin kicks, performing knife stunts (sans knife), and demonstrating some wrestling moves, amongst other things. The second video finds him honing similar skills but with a greater emphasis on weapons training and disarmaments.