Born and raised in Brussels , his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate school at the age of ten, which led Van Damme to hold the rank of 2nd- dan black belt in karate , and compete in several karate and kickboxing competitions. As a teenager, he won the middleweight championship of the European Professional Karate Association in and the Mr.
Belgium bodybuilding title in With the desire of becoming an actor in Hollywood , he moved to the United States in , where he worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport He became a popular action film star and followed up with commercially successful films such as Cyborg , Kickboxer both , Lionheart , Death Warrant both , Double Impact , Universal Soldier , Nowhere to Run , Hard Target both , Timecop , Street Fighter both , Sudden Death , The Quest , which marked his directorial debut , and Maximum Risk both He achieved sex symbol status in the late s and early s.
His big return to the action genre was in The Expendables 2 , in which he starred as the villain, opposite Sylvester Stallone 's character. From thereon, he continued starring in action films and doing extensive voice work, appearing in the well-received Enemies Closer , Kung Fu Panda 3 , The Bouncer , Kickboxer: Retaliation both , Minions: The Rise of Gru , and Darkness of Man , among others.
His paternal grandmother was Jewish. According to Van Damme, ballet "is an art, but it's also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport. Van Damme trained for four years and he earned a spot on the Belgian Karate Team; he later trained in full-contact karate and kickboxing with Dominique Valera.
I was kind of geeky, and physically I was not gifted". At the age of 15, he started his competitive karate career in Belgium. From to , he compiled a record of 44 victories and four defeats in tournament and non-tournament semi-contact matches. At the three-day tournament, he defeated 25 opponents before losing in the finals to teammate Angelo Spataro. Van Damme had a victory over Teugels. Teugels was coming off an impressive showing at the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations World Championships four months earlier, and was favored by some to win this match.
