Noah Beck’s path to stardom didn’t exist ten years ago. The young actor made his way into America’s hearts in the most hyper-modern way: posting on TikTok, racking up over 33 million followers and two billion likes on the platform to become one of the 2020s’ true internet success stories. The life of a 24-year-old social media personality comes with an enormous microscope. His body, his face, his hair, are all subject to public scrutiny, which means he pays he’s especially attentive to his health and wellness.

But pressure-filled situations are nothing new for Beck, who was a soccer star during his youth. His footy skills were so advanced, in fact, that he moved from Arizona to Utah for his final two years of high school to play for the MLS club Real Salt Lake’s youth academy team. From there, he played collegiately at the University of Portland, the same school that produced American eidolon Megan Rapinoe. Beck’s freshman year was in 2019, and you might remember the global event that happened the next year, which changed the entire trajectory of his life.

When we caught up, Beck dove into everything that turned him from a round-the-clock athlete to round-the-clock poster, including the elements of diet and training that have stuck with him in his post-soccer life. The athleticism is still there, though, as evidenced both by his performance in GQ’s Thom Browne football game during New York Fashion Week, and the Tubi romantic comedy Sidelined: The QB and Me, where he plays a hunky high school quarterback. As we discussed, the first step to being a chiseled, disciplined young man is turning your back on the sugary mess you ate growing up.

GQ: My first question is about playing D1 soccer and the level of dedication that comes with that. What do you remember about those days in terms of the changes you had to make to really ensure that your body was able to withstand all the running and everything that goes into playing soccer?

Noah Beck: Growing up, my dad was my coach, so he was always pretty tough on me and instilled certain non-negotiables when it came to training. With diet, honestly, he was pretty loose with that because he also understood that I was a kid. You kind of have to have flexibility here and there to enjoy just being a human. But he instilled a lot of things that live with me today. During that time when I was playing high-level competitive soccer—and a lot of other sports as well, but went the farthest with soccer—everything kind of just supplemented that.

More than anything, I think it all kind of comes down to how disciplined you are to know that these little things are little investments into tomorrow’s self, and that’ll give you the edge in the game on the weekend. It could be the smallest thing that you can kind of shrug off, have this little slip, and you might not notice a difference. To this day, I’m just like, how do you get a little bit better every single day?

I’ve kind of applied that into everything in my life, or at least try to. But yeah, when it came to having to perform every weekend—and honestly every day at training when you’re at that level, every single day is kind of a try-out and you’re competing for your spot, nothing’s cemented—I think that will very quickly filter out who’s cut out for this. I loved it. It was my favorite part of showing up every day. Alright, we’re competing. That is a nice little reminder and a mindset in life, to be honest. Nothing is given.

Did you run into anything that was much more intense than anything else you’d ever experienced?

You know what? I’m going to be honest. No. I think that comes from preparation. Having that instilled in me at a young age—knowing what it’s going to take, knowing the sacrifice of, hey, look, I won’t be able to come to this party tonight or be able to hang out with you guys tonight, always—I was doing that already in my teenage years. In high school I was pretty set on the path that I wanted, and I don’t think there was a party or an occasion with my friends that would sway me away from that. But also, of course, enjoying it while you can. I don’t mean to sound boring, but I get pretty obsessive in a good way.