Key takeaways
- Travis Jeffery lost 12 kg of fat and gained 3 kg of muscle in eight weeks to play Cory in Stan’s Birthright, streaming from 20 September 2026.
- Coaches Chief Brabon and Emilie Brabon-Hames built the plan around DARC (Dynamic Aerobic Resistance Conditioning), a hybrid of interval training and resistance work.
- Jeffery trained five days a week across PT sessions, SKWOD circuits and an outdoor bootcamp, with the assault bike as the standout pain point.
- Nutrition was fully vegetarian, built around whole foods such as tofu, brown rice, hummus and steamed vegetables rather than a restrictive diet.
Travis Jeffery knew his next role would leave him nowhere to hide.
“As I started to read through the script for Birthright, I soon realised that the role required me to have my shirt off for many of the scenes,” he says.
Playing Cory in the dark comedy meant something new: a physique brief built purely around aesthetics. Working with TransformationCoach.com’s Chief Brabon and Emilie Brabon-Hames, Jeffery lost 12kg of fat and gained 3kg of muscle in eight weeks. Birthright streams on Stan from 20 September 2026.
Building the character
Jeffery has already taken on demanding physical roles in Gallipoli, Unbroken, Danger Close and Before Dawn. Most recently he played the chimpanzee Anaya in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, also training with Chief and Emilie.
“For Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes I needed to move well and freely, having enough upper body strength to swing and climb, and enough lower body strength to basically hold a squat for ten hours a day. The burn was real.”
Cory is a different kind of role. Disillusioned with the usual promises of education, marriage and home ownership, the character treats his body as the one thing he can still control.
“I wanted Cory to look strong as a way of deflecting from all his insecurities, a way of hiding his internal collapse,” Jeffery says. Chief shifted the emphasis from mobility and functional strength towards fat loss and hypertrophy. “For Birthright, the transformation had to happen in a much shorter window, so the training was taken up a level, which made it more of a mental challenge too.”
The weekly grind
Jeffery combined five weekly PT sessions at Chief and Emilie’s Sweat & Social Club studio on Sydney’s Eastern Beaches with small-group SKWOD circuits, plus an early-morning Original Bootcamp session at Coogee Beach when he couldn’t make a PT slot.
The foundation across all three was DARC, Chief’s signature Dynamic Aerobic Resistance Conditioning protocol: five minutes of joint mobility, two minutes of high-intensity intervals, then two or three resistance exercises targeting one muscle group before returning to the intervals. Three or four rounds, then the exercises change and it repeats. It’s the same protocol Chief and Emilie used to transform Uli Latukefu into an action hero for The Legend of Baron To’a.
Asked which sessions stick in his memory, Jeffery doesn’t hesitate: “Any session involving the most appropriately named piece of equipment in the fitness industry, the assault bike.”
“I think the toughest part was the first few weeks, getting used to the training volume and the change in my eating habits.”
Vegetarian, not restrictive
Emilie worked closely with Jeffery to build a vegetarian nutrition plan that supplied enough protein for muscle growth while he was still losing fat.
“Ems made it so easy. She created this incredible booklet that lays out all your options, taking the guesswork out of what you can eat, and how it changes as the weeks progress,” he says.
A typical post-shoot meal: roasted vegetables, steamed greens, brown rice, hummus and tofu. “Looking back, I realise I was never really on a diet. I was just eating a lot of really healthy whole foods.”
Recovery had its place too, with mobility protocols carried over from his Anaya prep, plus infrared saunas and cold plunges added to the routine.
“Beyond their expertise and experience, they’re both wonderful people who support and guide you the whole way through, so you never feel like you’re tackling it alone,” he says. “We’ve become really close, so training with them is like training with your friends. Friends who thoroughly enjoy putting you through an incredible amount of pain!”
Facing the shirtless scenes
About three weeks into the programme, Jeffery began to see and feel a change, a turning point in his confidence in the process. Stepping onto set brought its own nerves.
“To be honest, I was still pretty nervous when we got to the first shirtless scenes,” he admits. The feeling went back further than eight weeks of training, to a discomfort with taking his shirt off that he says he’s carried since growing up.
“Watching the film back now, I’m so incredibly proud of what we achieved together, and I really couldn’t have done it without Chief and Ems.”
Training for life
Jeffery’s next role has him playing Kelley alongside Tom Hanks in Greyhound 2, joining a growing list of actors who’ve overhauled their physiques for a part, from Jake Gyllenhaal’s Road House transformation to Henry Cavill’s long-running training regime.
“Balance is the biggest lesson that’s stayed with me,” he says. “Maintaining the level of body fat I had for Birthright isn’t sustainable all the time. I need to enjoy life, and that actually makes the training easier when I do need to lock in.”
His advice for anyone starting a transformation: “Just focus on doing your best today, then get some sleep, and tomorrow will be easier.”
Or, as he and the coaches kept saying through the eight weeks: “What are you training for? Life!”
