Panom Yeerum was born on February 5, 1976, in the northeastern province of Surin, Thailand. His parents were elephant herders. Panom watched martial arts films as a young kid and began to emulate some of his idols, from Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Jet Li. After seeing the Thai action film "Born to Fight", Panom met and studied martial arts and stunt work as a teen under the director of that film, Panna Rittikrai. Panom went to university where he studied a variety of martial arts, from tae kwondo to judo. It was not long before Panom would get work, doubling for Robin Shou and James Remar in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and when his demo reel was seen by director Prachya Pinkaew, the film Ong-bak was created for Panom, who is now going by the name of "Tony Jaa" in hopes to bring his style of action to international audiences.


Stunt-man turned actor who does not use any wire work or CG effects in his stunts. Watching Jackie Chan movies and a Thai movie called Kerd ma lui (2004) ("Born to Fight") influenced him to do stuntwork and eventually become a action star, but he says his biggest influence is Bruce Lee. Robin Shou's stunt double in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997). Is actually of Cambodian descent, more known as "Khmer Surin".