Biography
Tim Man is a Swedish Actor, action director, stuntman and fight scene choreographer, specializing in Taekwondo, Vovinam, Judo, wushu, boxing, Muay Thai, MMA. Tim was born in the Swedish city of Malmö to a Swedish mother and a father from Hong Kong. He started martial arts at the age of six where he trained in judo and jui-jitsu. At the age of eight, he studied the Vietnamese discipline of Vovinam from his teacher, Tha Truing Duong, who also taught him taekwondo. Tim now holds a 2nd dan black belt in taekwondo.
At the age of 15, Tim Man was already a three-time taekwondo champion in Sweden, and he came third place in the World Taekwondo Championships. Inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films, he later studied acrobatics and gymnastics. From 1999, he began to upload videos of his martial arts ‘tricks’ to the website, Bilang.com.
Tim first became a stunt performer after being spotted by a stunt co-ordinator in the background of a Swedish musical. He worked for 18 months in Sweden as a stuntman, appearing mostly in Swedish television. After watching Ong-Bak, he decided to move to Thailand to work in martial arts films. He worked alongside Tony Jaa in the doomed, big-budget follow-up to his breakthrough success, Ong-Bak: The Beginning. Tim also worked on the film Bangkok Adrenaline (2009), and alongside Jeeja Yanin in Raging Phoenix (2009). Tim broke his ankle in the latter film and was out of action for two months.
In 2009, after taking up acting classes, Tim Man got his first role in an American production, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li, which was being filmed in Thailand. Tim’s first leading role was in the first Italian martial arts action comedy Una vita da song (2011). He played a brainwashed martial artist called Marco Zanc and also worked as fight choreographer. In the same year, he reunited with Bangkok Adrenaline director Raymond Huber as fight co-ordinator in the action film, Kill ‘em All (2012), where he worked alongside legendary Shaw Brothers star Gordon Liu and kickboxing legend Joe Lewis.
Tim has also worked in American television, notably as a stunt performer in Mortal Kombat: Legacy (2011). He has also worked in motion capture graphics for video games like Bloodforge, Battlefield 3 and Mad Max.
Tim continues to work in front of the camera and as a fight choreographer. He ended up taking a key supporting role in Isaac Florentine’s Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013) where he first worked alongside Scott Adkins. He has continued to work with Adkins on the films Eliminators (2016), Boyka: Undisputed (2016), Accident Man (2018) and Triple Threat (2019). In 2017, he worked as the fight choreographer on Isaac Florentine’s Acts of Vengeance, starring Antonio Banderas.