Andre Jin Talks Scary Physical 100 Moments [Interview]

July 29, 2024

The Big Picture

Andre Jin preferred being a team member over leadera on Physical: 100
He ensured his ex-rugby teammate was on his team for the show.
The scariest parts of the competition were the unforeseen quests before each round.

Season 2 of Physical 100 split the 100 cast members into different categories and one of them was national athletes. Andre Jin Coquillard is a retired rugby player for the South Korean team and now coaches. He's one of many retired athletes who came onto the Netflix reality show to test their skills and possibly win the title of having the "perfect body" and 300 million won. However, there were multiple quests and hurdles leading up to that goal.

Collider spoke to Andre over Zoom on April 2 about competing in the physical show. He answered whether being a team leader is truly an advantage or disadvantage. The coach addressed how his height affected his performance at times. And finally, how he feels about his placement at the end of the season.

Physical: 100

TV-14Reality-TVGame Show

One hundred contestants in top physical shape compete in a series of grueling challenges to claim the honor - and cash reward - as the last one standing.

Release Date January 24, 2023 Creator Jang Ho-gi Cast Hee-Dong Son , Jing-Yong Park , Jung-Myung Cho , Hae-Min Jung Main Genre Reality-TV Seasons 2

Andre Jin says Dong-Hyun Kim was "probably milking it" on 'Physical: 100'

The cast votes and rank their desired team leaders in the top 50. Andre impressed everyone with his performance in the preliminary quest and was chosen to be a leader. However, he was the eighth person to pick his four team members. Andre admitted he would've preferred being picked as a team member.

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"I was actually hoping to be picked," he told Collider. "It's, I think less pressure. I've been part of a lot of teams and my professional career, and sometimes it's better to be picked and just do your role. That's kind of what I did while playing rugby. So I was kind of hoping for that, but as the games went on and everything went forward, I was so glad that my fellow contestants picked me as team captain, and I was able to really grow in the role. So really thankful to them."

Retired MMA fighter Dong-Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim was unsurprisingly a team leader chosen. But he took a long time to deciding when forming his team. "Dong-Hyun is a seasoned TV vet, so he's probably milking it a little bit," Andre said. "It took him about five to six minutes. I would say. He did walk around quite a bit and I knew he wanted to take the other rugby player, Chang Yong-Heung, who I ended up picking. But look, we didn't know that at the time of re-watching, the show, and he was looking for that 85 kilogram. That's a well-balanced kind of character. So that's why [he] actually took his time on going around asking each person like their weight, what they do for a living, and decided to pick Dae-Jin [Jung], which was probably a really good choice."

Andre Made Sure His Former Rugby Teammate Was on His Team

There was one person the retired national athlete was set on when it was his turn to form his team. "Well for me. I was just hoping that my former teammate wouldn't be picked," he said. Andre was born in Seoul and has an American father. He played rugby at U.C. Berkley so he had few connections on the show. "Just like Justin [Harvey] said, like, we're sort of outsiders there," he later explained. "But, we don't know like other national team members and stuff, they kind of knew one another." Justin chimed in during the joint interview and said Andre knew "a ton" of athletes.

"I know that Yong-Heung being a fellow rugby player going to the Olympics together," he explained. "I just knew [...] what he can do athletically and, also just like his mentality. So I just knew I needed him." His former teammate told him to shoot for balance when building the team. They might not be Min-su Kim or Korean Thanos, but they could be strategic. So he chose Woo-Jin Park, Power Who Yami, and You-In Jung. Andre turned to his roots and wanted to build a "rugby team."

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Yong-Heung left the competition early for the Asian Games. That meant Andre only faced three players in the intra-team competition. "The reality is he's like, 'This is a great opportunity. But for me, willing to be here, it wasn't about the prize money for us. It was for us to show that rugby players in Korea, even though it's not a popular sport, we can be at the world stage,'" the team leader explained. The semifinals conflicted with his schedule for the Asian Games, and he's the captain of the team. "We didn't know we'd get this far, to be honest," Andre admitted. "But I think he made the right call." He said he wanted to compete against the best which includes Yong-Heung, but it didn't work out that way.

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The coach towered over most of the Physical 100 cast, being 6'5 or 196 cm. He mentioned not having a low center of gravity would work against him for quests like pushing a heavy mine cart. He made it to the final three who had to do infinite squats with the weight of coal, which increased throughout the competition. Andre thought his height could be an advantage until he realized he had more distance to cover, dropping and getting back up for squats.

"The day we arrived for the day in the finals, they actually took our weight and our like length. and inner squat length," he revealed. "They made us, they took a few measurements. So we knew something was coming. It was different from the other quests that we had faced before. But the second I saw the squats I just knew because the other two, like they're just perfect for squats." He later said, "I was pretty worried. I was just hoping that my ment--like being a professional athlete. Being able to kind of push through harder times, it was going to be able to get me through it." In the end, Andre said the winners of the round, Amotti and Beom-Seok Hong, are physical specimens. "There's no regret in finishing to those guys," he said.

Andre placed third and was part of all but the final round of season 2. He revealed what was the scariest part of the competition. "I think for me, it's per quest, it's just that couple minutes before when we move from where they have us kind of waiting, and they say we're going to move to the set now, right? But we don't, we don't know what's coming," the third-place finisher explained. "You know what I mean? And there's one point with the infinite squat, I was actually blindfolded at that point." That was to keep the competitors from seeing the set before filming.

Andre keeps busy with coaching and stays in shape by doing the same weight program during his rugby career. He then runs after coaching his team. Amotti won the season, which isn't surprising to him. "Physical 100 is basically Crossfit," outside the team quests he said. However, the missions where you hit people are good for rugby players.

Would he return for another season to try to win it all? "I think the big picture is coaching and trying to help rugby grow," the finalist said. "And I'm so thankful. I think you know once you hit number three, you hit a medal in [the] Olympic Games. [...] I wouldn't want to ruin it the experience by finishing lower next time."

Physical: 100 can be streamed on Netflix.

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