What Happened to Jet Li? Where Is He Now?

Jet Li spent decades as one of the most recognised martial arts stars in the world, but stepped away from the public eye as a combination of health problems and a personal shift in priorities took hold. The good news for fans is that 2026 looks like his year to come back.

Between Mulan in 2020 and Blades of the Guardians in 2026, Jet Li went six years without appearing in a film. The gap was not planned as a retirement, it was a direct result of his hyperthyroidism diagnosis, accumulated spinal and leg injuries from decades of performing his own stunts.

The medication he relied on to control his thyroid condition made intense physical training impossible, and he has said that living with chronic pain reshaped his thinking about what he wanted to do with his time. Rather than push through for the sake of staying in the public eye, he stepped back and devoted himself to his Buddhist practice and charity work through the One Foundation.

His absence fed years of rumours, but the reality was simply that a man who had spent most of his life in training halls and on film sets chose, for the first time, to slow down.

Is Jet Li Still Alive?

Yes, Jet Li is very much alive. The rumours of his death have circulated periodically online for years, driven largely by his long absences from public view and his visibly changed appearance in photographs.

In August 2025, he himself put the latest round of speculation to rest by posting videos on Weibo and Douyin showing himself in a hospital bed before and after a surgical procedure. He described the operation with characteristic dry humour, writing that “a piece of hardware broke down, so I sent it back to the manufacturer for repair.” The wound was visible on the right side of his neck. Within 48 hours he was posting a photo of himself eating knife-cut noodles at a restaurant after being discharged, telling fans he had “left the factory”.

A close associate confirmed the surgery was to remove a small benign tumour, and his recovery went smoothly. By November 2025, Li had re-emerged publicly looking noticeably healthier, enough that some Chinese media started talking about a “reverse aging” transformation. He posted a video of himself swimming to address a bizarre new rumour that had spread online, that his renewed health was the result of a heart transplant from a deceased Shaolin monk. Li appeared topless in the video to show he had no surgical scars, and used the moment to address how quickly misinformation spreads.

How Old Is Jet Li?

Jet Li is 63 years old, born on April 26, 1963, in Beijing, China. He is a naturalised citizen of Singapore, having confirmed that status publicly in 2011 after reports of his move surfaced in Singapore’s Business Times. He moved there partly for his two daughters’ education and because Singapore’s laws meant his family would not be followed by paparazzi. He and his wife Nina Li Chi also purchased a villa on Binjai Rise for approximately 19.8 million Singapore dollars at the time.

What Happened to Jet Li’s Health?

Li was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in 2010 and publicly disclosed the condition in 2013. Hyperthyroidism occurs when the thyroid gland overproduces hormones, affecting almost every organ in the body. At one point, his resting heart rate measured between 130 and 140 beats per minute, well above a normal range of 60 to 100. He manages the condition with daily medication, though the drugs themselves prevented him from doing intense physical training for years.

On top of that, Li accumulated significant spinal and leg injuries over decades of performing his own stunts, injuries severe enough that the Chinese government issued him a Grade 3 disability assessment. There were also lingering effects on his heart from the untreated period before his diagnosis.

In December 2004, he was caught in the Indian Ocean tsunami while on holiday in the Maldives, grabbing his four-year-old daughter and running for higher ground when the waves hit their hotel lobby; a piece of floating furniture struck his foot in the process. Surviving that near-death experience was, by his own account, the catalyst for launching his charity, the One Foundation.

The 2025 neck surgery was the most recent medical episode. A frail photograph taken of Li in Tibet back in 2018 went viral at the time and first triggered widespread concern, but his manager Steven Chasman told The Washington Post it was “nothing life-threatening,” just an unfortunate image of someone managing a chronic condition.

Is Jet Li a Real Martial Artist?

Li’s martial arts background is genuine and well-documented. He began training in wushu at age eight after being selected from over 1,000 children by coach Wu Bin, who even bought food for Li’s family to ensure the young athlete got enough protein. By age 12, he won his first national wushu championship, competing in the adult division against men in their mid-to-late twenties and finishing on top.

He went on to become the all-round national wushu champion for five consecutive years, from 1975 to 1979, winning more than 50 gold medals across individual and all-round events. He also toured the United States as part of the Chinese National Wushu Team, where President Nixon asked the teenage champion to be his personal bodyguard, and Li declined by saying he wanted to defend one billion Chinese people instead.

He retired from competition at 19, having never entered a combat/sparring event; wushu at his level focused on forms and precision of technique rather than full-contact fighting. His primary discipline was Changquan though he also trained in baguazhang, tai chi, and xingyiquan.

Jet Li Movies

Li made his acting debut in The Shaolin Temple in 1982, a film that became a sensation in mainland China and kicked off a decade of domestic success. He built his name through the 1990s with a string of Hong Kong productions including Once Upon a Time in China (1991), where he played folk hero Wong Fei-hung, and Fist of Legend (1994). Western audiences got their first major look at him as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), after which his Hollywood career shifted into leading roles with Romeo Must Die (2000) and Kiss of the Dragon (2001).

His most critically respected work came with Zhang Yimou’s Hero in 2002, a visually striking historical epic that drew international attention and earned a Metacritic score of 85. He followed that with Fearless (2006), which he described as his last traditional martial arts film, and The Warlords (2007), winning the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor for the latter. In Hollywood he appeared across the Expendables franchise and played the Emperor in Disney’s live-action Mulan in 2020, which became his final film for several years.

After a six-year gap, Li is back. Blades of the Guardians, directed by Yuen Woo-ping, who choreographed Drunken Master and The Matrix, opened in Chinese cinemas for the 2026 Spring Festival and received a North American release through Well Go USA on February 17, 2026. The film reunites Li with Wu Jing (Wolf Warrior) and also stars Nicholas Tse. Set during China’s Sui Dynasty, it follows a mercenary escort mission that escalates when the prisoner turns out to be the empire’s most wanted man.

Where Is Jet Li Now?

Li is based in Singapore and has largely traded film sets for quieter pursuits, meditation, Buddhist practice, and philanthropy through the One Foundation, which he launched after surviving the 2004 tsunami. He has spoken publicly about visiting monasteries in both China and Singapore and shifting his focus toward projects he finds meaningful rather than action-heavy.

In early 2026, he launched a YouTube channel where he talks directly to fans, shares lessons from his health journey, and makes videos with his daughters. He is also promoting his book Beyond Life and Death: The Way of True Freedom. Between a new film in cinemas, a new online presence, and a noticeably healthier public profile, Jet Li appears to be in the middle of a genuine second act.