Benny Urquidez

Benny "The Jet" Urquidez is one of those figures who quietly shaped an entire era of combat sports, and I think he deserves way more mainstream recognition than he gets. Growing up in Tarzana, California, he became a full-contact karate and kickboxing pioneer at a time when nobody in America really knew what that even meant — and he went undefeated across multiple weight classes fighting top competitors from Japan and Europe. But what really cemented him for me is his film work: his fight scenes opposite Jackie Chan in Wheels on Meals and Dragons Forever are genuinely some of the most breathtaking choreography ever put on screen. Chan himself has called Benny one of the toughest opponents he's ever faced on film, which tells you everything. The guy is the rare athlete who crossed over into Hollywood and actually held his own on both sides.

Name (English)

Benny Urquidez

Name (Japanese)

ベニー・ユキーデ

Reading

べにー・ゆきーで

Born

June 20, 1952 (age 74)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Dragon

Origin

Tarzana, California, United States

Occupation

actor / judoka / boxer / kickboxer / film actor

High school

North Hollywood High School

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttps://bennythejet.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%99%E3%83%8B%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%A6%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%87

Tags

• California
• actor
• judoka
• boxer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.