2023 Rewind: Paparazzi Catch Buff Zac Efron Shirtless on Yacht

This piece is part of EDGE's 2023 Rewind series. We're reaching into our archives and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past year.

The paparazzi caught up with a buff Zac Efron recently when the 35-year-old actor was on a yacht on St. Tropez. "In photos exclusively obtained by Page Six, the shirtless actor showed off his chiseled biceps and six-pack abs while getting wet and wild in the celebrity vacation destination."

Efron "rocked patterned swim trunks, reflective shades and a bucket hat for the day on the water. The 'Hairspray[ star looked extremely lean and ripped during the yacht outing after previously admitting that he never wants to be in 'Baywatch' shape again."

"That [look], I don't know if that's really attainable. There's just too little water in the skin," Efron told Men's Health in September 2022. When the pandemic hit, Efron pushed back from his busy career. "He sequestered himself in Byron Bay, a beachy haven in Australia. He slept on a hammock in the trees. He dated a civilian. He took moonlit swims with phosphorescent plankton that glowed around him with every motion."

Some fans even talked about his "dad bod," "which, to be clear, was a dad bod only relative to his lifeguard bod. The New York Post called it "a far cry from his ripped physique in Baywatch"; Twitter called him Daddy," writes Men's Health.

But Zefron welcomed the change, telling Men's Health. "That 'Baywatch' look, I don't know if that's really attainable. There's just too little water in the skin. Like, it's fake; it looks CGI'd," he continues. "And that required Lasix, powerful diuretics, to achieve. So I don't need to do that. I much prefer to have an extra, you know, 2 to 3 percent body fat."

The process hit him hard. "I started to develop insomnia," he says, "and I fell into a pretty bad depression, for a long time. Something about that experience burned me out. I had a really hard time recentering. Ultimately they chalked it up to taking way too many diuretics for way too long, and it messed something up." Six months after the film wrapped, he finally began to feel right again."

Men's Health adds: "It wasn't until his Australian sabbatical that he really started to reevaluate his approach to fitness. For the first time in his working life, Efron had a window to take a real break. And to fall out of shape."

"At one point, that was a dream of mine–what it would be like to not have to be in shape all the time," he says. He had been acclimated to a certain level of fitness since he was a kid, joining his father on runs. "What if I just say, 'Fuck it' and let myself go? So I tried it, and I was successful. And for all the reasons I thought it would be incredible, I was just miserable. My body would not feel healthy; I just didn't feel alive. I felt bogged down and slow."

Check out pics from Efron's Instagram: