1. Mia Kang was born on 30 December 1988 and is a British-Swiss fashion model, Muay Thai fighter, body confidence advocate, and television host based in New York City.
33 Facts About Mia Kang
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Mia Kang halved her weight at the age of 13 and was scouted as a model.
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Mia Kang modeled across Asia and Europe through her high school and college years.
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Mia Kang got a master's degree in finance and financial law in England, and left modeling to work as a commodities trader, before returning to modeling in New York City and winning the 2016 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model search and being named a 2017 Rookie.
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Mia Kang was born and raised in Hong Kong, though she has Swiss nationality.
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Mia Kang's father is British and her mother is South Korean; they met while living in Taiwan, then moved to Hong Kong for business.
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Mia Kang has four older half-siblings, but they lived in other parts of the world as she was growing up.
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Mia Kang says the Asian kids would socialize together and the western kids would socialize together, but she was half Korean and half British, and never felt she belonged with either.
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Mia Kang grew up bullied and overweight, though a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover with model Tyra Banks hung on her wall.
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Mia Kang says that she was around 86 kilograms before dropping to around 43 kilograms ; she was size 14 and became size 0.
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Mia Kang studied philosophy and economics at Bristol University, earning a bachelor's degree, then got a master's degree in finance and financial law at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
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Mia Kang says her education is the thing in her life that she is proudest of, and intends to return one day for a doctorate or an MBA.
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Mia Kang was on the path to becoming a derivatives consultant in her mid-20s, when she realized she felt stifled and decided to try the modeling profession one more time.
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In 2015, Mia Kang signed with Trump Model Management and moved from Hong Kong to New York City, home of most of the world's top models.
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Mia Kang was declared a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue 2017 Rookie.
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Mia Kang was being asked to starve herself, and go on 10-day liquid diets between photo shoots.
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Mia Kang's family have a home in Koh Samui, an island off the east coast of Thailand.
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Mia Kang was taking a 10-day holiday from modeling there in 2016, when she noticed young fighters from a local gym training in the combat sport Muay Thai by the side of the road, and asked if she could try it; initially just to help her lose more of the weight that she was told she needed to.
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Mia Kang began to alternate her time between training and returning to New York for modeling.
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Mia Kang kept training in New York with Phil Nurse at The Wat, and Hollywood Hino of Church Street Boxing, for about three hours daily, and in Thailand at the Bangkok Yokkao and her first gym, Yodyut, on Koh Samui, for about six hours each day.
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Mia Kang decided to compete in her first professional Muay Thai fight in May 2017.
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Mia Kang would have done it earlier, but her modeling agency objected strenuously; the money wasn't much compared to US modeling fees, and being injured in a fight would put her career in doubt.
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Mia Kang took a month long training with legendary Muay Thai fighter Saenchai to prepare for her fight.
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Mia Kang was matched against Thai fighter Nong B, who had 5 bouts experience.
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Mia Kang won the second round, then went in with "heavy hands" in the third round, hitting her opponent hard, and winning by technical knockout.
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Mia Kang became a body confidence advocate, encouraging all women to have strong and healthy bodies.
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Mia Kang started her own all-female boxing club in SoHo, New York, called "Killa Girl Gang", after her fighting name, "Killa Kang", for all levels of fitness.
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Mia Kang hosted a body positivity retreat on Koh Samui with travel agency 109 World.
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Mia Kang was named a 2018 Today Show Style Hero, and the 2019 Self magazine New Year's Challenge star.
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Mia Kang continues to model, but says that her new size, eight or ten in 2018, puts her above the standard model sizes, and yet below the plus-size model sizes, so clients ask that she either gain or lose weight.
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In 2020, Mia Kang became the host of Spy Games, a reality competition television series on the American television channel Bravo, in which ten contestants compete in spy-inspired exercises for $100,000.
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Mia Kang tries to work with a charity in every country she models in.
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Mia Kang's memoir is centered around her experience with Muay Thai and the positive impact it has had on her life.