Chris Hemsworth has cheated death while surfing.

The 30-year-old actor is an avid surfer and he has had near-fatal accidents a number of times, leaving him under water struggling to breath. Speaking to GQ, he said, "I've surfed a couple of times where I've been pinned under a reef and I'm right at the end of my breath, and there's nothing else you want to see more than the surface."

Chris has been riding waves since he was young, while he's never come face-to-face with a shark, he's certain there have been some "around" while he's been on his board. "I've surfed most of my life and without a doubt there's been sharks in the water when I've been there. I've never seen a shark, but there's no doubt there would've been one around," he added.

Despite his high-risk hobbies, it's in everyday life the Rush star finds himself think about his mortality - and he was sure to take care while he was behind the wheel taking the lead role as Formula 1 star James Hunt in the new biopic. "It's the near misses that you don't see when you're walking down the street, then later you think, 'S**t, that bus was two inches away from hitting me.' There were moments when driving on the track where you think, 'I better pull back here,' because you think of how things could end up," he explained.