What was Phil Keoghan's near-death experience? 'Tough As Nails' host recalls the dreadful underwater story

Phil went diving and lost his way around a shipwreck, almost ran out of oxygen

PUBLISHED FEB 10, 2021

Phil Keoghan is known for his work in 'The Amazin Race' (Getty Images)

Known best for his work in 'The Amazing Race', New Zealander Phil Keoghan polished hosting skills further when he took on CBS' 'Tough As Nails', a competition series which will return to the network with Season 2 on February 10, Wednesday. His wife Louise Keoghan (née Rodrigues) is the producing partner of the show.

Each Season 12 contestants compete on real-world job sites where they are tested not just on strength and endurance, but also mental toughness and the level of life skills they bring to the mix. There are team tasks and elimination challenges that help the showrunners decide the winner who gets to walk away with an impressive cash prize of $200,000.

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Now that we have the background out of the way, let's talk about our storied host, whose shot to fame may have been 'The Amazing Race' but he is also known for his book title 'No Opportunity Wasted', which chronicles his life and how he changed his approached towards it after a near-death experience.

He wrote about it in detail on his blog as part of an episode review of 'Tough As Nails.'

"I know a thing or two about having to overcome being paralyzed in the water," EW quoted an excerpt from his write up where he added that he was 19-years-old when we went diving in an underwater shipwreck. Phil, then, had lost his way and was running out of oxygen. He was cutting it close.

"I was eventually rescued, but it was definitely touch and go there for a while and by far the most fear I’ve ever experienced," he described.

Those moments shaped what would become an adventurous life. He wrote in his book how it pushed him to list down the things he wanted to do in life. "It was the first time I really stopped to think what dying could mean. I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote down all the things I had to do in life: hand-feed sharks, travel the world, climb Mt Everest, go into space," the book reads.

And he was true to his words. Those weren't just fancy things he wrote down just for the sake of it. Since then, Phil has gone broken an unofficial bungee jumping record where he jumped off a bridge along with eight other people at the same. He has also renewed his vows while feeding sharks and eaten a meal atop an erupting volcano.

Catch more of his stories when he returns with 'Tough As Nails' on CBS this February 10. For more information, check your local listings.