Max Huang will play Kung Lao in 2021's Mortal Kombat, and audiences may know him a lot better than they might realize. The reboot of the Mortal Kombat film series will see Kung Lao wielding his famed razor hat alongside his fellow Shaolin monk Liu Kang, with the reboot now taking them from the good friends they've always been to cousins. However, before landing the role of Kung Lao, Max Huang had quite a background in action movies.
A champion in contemporary Wushu, Huang got started in the 2010 zombie movie Dead Survivors and moved on to minor roles in movies like Burning Man and The Ego. However, stunt work is where Huang has really made his mark. Huang is a member of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team, and his work in stunts is where most audiences have likely seen him without even realizing it.
Huang has done stunts and had on-camera roles in such Jackie Chan vehicles as Chinese Zodiac, Police Story: Lockdown, and Dragon Blade. Other Chan movies Huang has worked on include Skiptrace, The Foreigner, Bleeding Steel and the upcoming Project X-Traction, which teams Chan with John Cena. Outside of his collaborations with the legendary Jackie Chan, Huang has also done stunt work and stunt coordination on other action movies, too.
Huang served as stunt coordinator on 2012's Shanghai Calling and has been a stunt performer on other projects such as Sorry I Love You, Outcast, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Hitman: Agent 47. Huang's had other minor roles in movies such as Time Riders and Netflix series Sense8. Additionally, Huang also wrote and directed the action short No Way Out, in which he also played the role of Chen, a former criminal who is recruited to infiltrate a drug ring, with Huang really getting to display what he could do as a martial artist in the short.
Huang isn't one of the more well-known members of the Mortal Kombat cast, so the reboot is set to be his most prominent on-screen appearance to date. Despite this, millions of moviegoers around the world, and especially fans of Asian action movies, have already been introduced to Max Huang and probably didn't even realize it by way of his extensive stunt background and affiliation with the Jackie Chan Stunt Team. Of course, when it comes to Kung Lao, many viewers are likely dying to see how his razor hat is put to use in the movie's action scenes - and judging from the Fatality-filled trailer for Mortal Kombat, it seems like a good bet the reboot isn't planning to let them down.
