The Liver King built one of the biggest fitness brands on the internet on a single promise: his huge, lean physique was completely natural, built only by eating raw organ meat and living like our ancestors. 🥩
In late 2022, leaked private emails showed that promise was not true. What followed — a public apology, a $25 million lawsuit and, years later, an arrest — is the full story this updated biography tells, based on verified reporting.
📋 Quick Facts
| Real name | Brian Michael Johnson |
| Known as | Liver King |
| Date of birth | March 2, 1978 (per his official website) |
| Born | Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, Ceiba, Puerto Rico; raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Internet personality and businessman |
| Known for | The “ancestral lifestyle”, the nine ancestral tenets, and eating raw organ meats on camera |
| Business | Co-founder of the supplement company Ancestral Supplements; co-owner of Heart & Soil, as reported |
| Wife | Barbara Johnson, known online as “Liver Queen” (married 2004; two sons) |
| Height | Not published |
| Weight | Not published |
| Net worth | Not published |
🌿 Who Is Liver King? The “Ancestral Living” Brand
Brian Johnson grew up in San Antonio, Texas, after his father, who served in the US Air Force, died while Brian was still an infant. He was raised there by his mother.
He studied biochemistry at Texas Tech University, later worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative in Houston, and held a stake in his wife Barbara’s dental practice. From around 2015, the couple were selling supplements online.
The “Liver King” persona came later. Johnson preached an “ancestral lifestyle” built on nine “ancestral tenets”: Sleep, Eat, Move, Shield, Connect, Cold, Sun, Fight and Bond.
The most famous tenet was Eat. Johnson filmed himself eating raw liver, raw organ meats and other unprocessed animal foods, arguing that “liver is king” — the line that gave him his nickname.
The persona was never separate from the business. Johnson co-founded Ancestral Supplements, which sells desiccated organ-meat products, and is reported to co-own the Heart & Soil supplement brand. His physique was the brand’s main advertisement.
Medical professionals criticised the raw-meat diet he promoted, warning of food-poisoning risks and the health effects of a diet very high in saturated fat, as the Washington Post and ABC News reported.
🚀 The Rise: Viral Fame in 2021
Johnson began posting as Liver King in 2021, and the formula spread fast: shirtless workouts, ice baths, walks with heavy chains, and plates of raw organs eaten on camera.
Within about a year he had millions of followers across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Like other viral fitness figures covered on this site, such as Ashton Hall, his following was built on a repeatable daily spectacle.
The podcast circuit followed. Johnson appeared on major fitness and business podcasts, telling the same story each time: modern life makes men weak, and the ancestral tenets were the cure.
One claim came up in interview after interview — was the physique natural? Johnson’s answer never changed. On Mark Bell’s Power Project podcast in 2022 he put it plainly: “I don’t touch the stuff. I’ve never done the stuff.”
He repeated versions of that denial for well over a year, including that he had “always told the truth”. That claim was the foundation of the brand — and of everything that followed.
📧 The Exposure: The Leaked Emails
In late November 2022, the YouTube channel More Plates More Dates, run by Derek, published an hour-long exposé built around Johnson’s own private emails.
The emails had been written by Johnson to a prospective coach in 2021. According to the reporting, the coach, known online as Vigorous Steve, gave Derek permission to publish them in redacted form.
They described a monthly drug regimen costing more than $11,000 a month, including multiple anabolic steroids and a synthetic growth hormone. The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and other outlets covered the leak within days.
The emails did not come from a hacker or a rival. They were Johnson’s own words, written at the same time he was publicly insisting he had never touched steroids.
🎥 The Apology: December 1, 2022
Days later, on December 1, 2022, Johnson posted an apology video. “I’m making this video to apologise because I f***ed up,” he said. “Because I’m embarrassed and ashamed. Because I lied, and I misled a lot of people.”
He then made the admission directly: “Yes, I’ve done steroids, and yes, I am on steroids, monitored and managed by a trained hormone clinician.” Reporting on the video noted he described taking around 120 mg of testosterone per week.
Johnson said the Liver King persona had been “an experiment” to spread a message, pointing to suicide and depression rates among young men. He also argued that his companies were already successful before the persona existed.
Reaction was split. Some followers accepted the apology; many others said the admission only came because the emails left him no choice.
⚖️ The Aftermath: Lawsuit and a Damaged Brand
On December 28, 2022, a customer named Christopher Altomare filed a class-action lawsuit in New York against Johnson and his companies, Ancestral Supplements and The Fittest Ever.
The complaint alleged that buyers had been deceived into purchasing products by the claim that Johnson’s physique came from the ancestral tenets rather than steroids, and it sought more than $25 million. The lawsuit was later discontinued, as Bloomberg and other outlets reported.
The business and the persona carried on, but the “all-natural” claim was gone for good. In May 2023, ABC News profiled his operation in depth, and the story had become a standard example in reporting about influencer honesty — a debate that also follows other physique stars, from Bradley Martyn to David Laid.
In May 2025, Netflix released the documentary Untold: The Liver King. In it, Johnson went further than the apology: he renounced the extreme carnivore diet itself, saying “I was wrong… I was starving myself.”
📍 Liver King in 2026: Where Is He Now?
Johnson’s most serious headlines since the scandal came on June 24, 2025, when Austin police arrested him on a charge of terroristic threat, a Class B misdemeanour.
Police said he had repeatedly threatened podcaster Joe Rogan on Instagram and travelled to Austin, where Rogan lives, while continuing the posts. He was released the same evening on a $20,000 bond, ordered to stay away from Rogan and his family, and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation.
In November 2025, the charge was dismissed, as The Independent reported. Days later, Johnson was posting videos about Rogan again.
As of 2026, his social media accounts remain active and he still posts in the Liver King persona. What has changed is the message: the “completely natural” claim is finished, and on camera he has disowned the extreme diet that made him famous.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is Liver King’s real name?
Brian Michael Johnson. “Liver King” is the online persona he launched in 2021, named after his promotion of raw liver as the centrepiece of his diet.
Did Liver King admit to using steroids?
Yes. After More Plates More Dates published his leaked private emails in late November 2022, Johnson admitted in a December 1, 2022 apology video that he had lied about being natural and was using steroids under a hormone clinician’s supervision.
How much did Liver King spend on steroids?
According to the leaked emails reported by the Washington Post and other outlets, his regimen cost more than $11,000 a month, including several anabolic steroids and a growth hormone.
What happened to the $25 million lawsuit against Liver King?
A class action filed in New York in December 2022 accused Johnson and his companies of deceiving customers and sought more than $25 million. The case was later discontinued.
Why was Liver King arrested in 2025?
Austin police arrested him on June 24, 2025, on a terroristic-threat charge after he posted repeated threats against Joe Rogan and travelled to Austin. He was released on a $20,000 bond, and the charge was dismissed in November 2025.
Is Liver King still active in 2026?
Yes. His accounts remain active, and he features in Netflix’s 2025 documentary Untold: The Liver King, in which he renounced the extreme carnivore diet he once promoted.
🏁 Final Word
The Liver King story is now a documented rise and fall: a viral 2021 persona, a natural claim repeated for over a year, one leak that disproved it, and an apology that could only follow.
What remains genuinely his is the audience, the businesses and the tenets that do not depend on the lie — sleep, movement, sunlight and connection. The record above is the version supported by reporting, and it is the version this page will keep.