JONATHAN TUCKER BY PATRICK HOELCK

MARINA DEL REY, CA—JONATHAN TUCKER PULLS UP TO the docks in an all-black retro-70s cop car and exclaims, “I’ve banned my publicist from the shoot…but he did tell me I need to wear sunscreen.” A good point: Tucker’s milk-white Bostonian skin is allergic to the sun. As a former ballet dancer from the East Coast, his youth was spent indoors or outside playing under damp and wet skies. However, as he emerges from the car, it’s hard to believe his newly gym-toned body was ever once the vessel for a ballet dancer. To be sure, however, those early years of intense and choreographed movements provided Tucker with the discipline, professionalism and teamwork that has helped him become a big-time actor in Hollywood. To transform from a lithe youth to hulk-like Hollywood man-child, Tucker turned to heavy weights, yoga, whey protein, Matcha green tea and pressed juices. He leaned on poet Maya Angelou’s direction of, “Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.”

And it’s all paid off. He’s won accolades left and right for his portrayal of drug-addled brawler Jay Kulina on the TV series Kingdom. “Truly a breakout performance by Tucker… electrifying”….”Jonathan Tucker…is a drugged-up drunk of an MMA fighter…he’s got a glint of danger in his eye that disappears when he knows he’s gone too far, forcing you to root for him even when he’s making mistakes”…”based on the look on Jay’s face—and the amazing performance from Tucker—it’s evident that this is just the beginning of this saga.”

Now aboard a 35-foot vessel sailing toward the blue horizon fronted by the island of Catalina, Tucker has his shirt off and is lounging with a topless model or two, looking every inch a West Coast yachtsman. For a moment, the sun- dappled Southern California day seems to suit him. He glints for the cameras, taking off and putting on a smattering of Oliver Peoples sunglasses. He briefly, and confidently, takes the reign of the ship, his wind-swept hair being slicked back with gel by a groomer and says, “This is pretty cool.”

Tucker’s breakout role, The Ruins, a diabolical thriller— its tagline was “Terror has Evolved”—came 7 years earlier. Then the parts began to come a little easier: juicy parts on hit shows like White Collar, Criminal Minds, Parenthood, Royal Pains and Justified; studio movies such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Stateside, The Valley of Elah and Sleepers. Needless to say, Tucker had put himself into a position to not only receive this good fortune, but move with its energy with diligence and hard work.

“If you do your homework and you’re open to the vibrations of the world around you good things happen,” he says, his chalk- white skin somehow not yet red by the strong sun. “Sometimes you choose roles and sometimes roles choose you. The meeting for Kingdom had both the magic of the unknown and the daily grind of any other actor’s journey.”

Our journey at sea is almost over. By now the boat is trolling back to land. Half the ship is seasick, sunburned and crouched on the deck moaning. Not Tucker. He wants to go all the way to Catalina—and possibly beyond. Maybe the sunscreen saved him. Or maybe he is just immune to the rough waters now that his career is solid. Or maybe, just maybe, his fashion icons, Jack Kerouac and Nick Wooster, tough and strong men, masculine yet also poetic, propelled him forward unscathed. Whatever the case, Jonathan Tucker is here to stay.