Callina Liang, the actress tapped to play Chun-Li in Legendary’s live-action Street Fighter adaptation, says she gained 6.5 centimeters of muscle on each thigh to embody Capcom’s iconic “Strongest Woman in the World.” The transformation came after a months-long regime of taekwondo, Muay Thai, and wushu training paired with a high-protein diet that at one point had her eating 12 eggs a day, she told Empire magazine in an interview covered by Yahoo Entertainment and Nintendo Life.
Liang said she studied Chun-Li’s fight choreography frame by frame, recording the character’s moves on her phone from Street Fighter 6 on PlayStation 5 so she could break them down in slow motion. “Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and wushu,” she said. “I did two hours of that a day and strengthened my legs a lot and changed my diet drastically.” The bulk phase pushed her so hard that meals came every two hours, and she admitted she was “on the verge of throwing up” by the end of it.
Why the extra thigh muscle matters for Chun-Li
Capcom has visibly buffed Chun-Li’s lower body with every mainline release since Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and SF6 is the most muscular the character has ever shipped. Liang’s training partner setup reflects that, with the leggings of the final costume reportedly engineered to handle the new muscle mass without breaking the silhouette. The 6.5 cm gain lines up with what cosplayers and modders have spent years reverse-engineering from in-game assets.
Who else is in the Street Fighter cast
Legendary’s Street Fighter, directed by Kitao Sakurai (Bad Trip), lands in theaters October 26, 2026. The ensemble includes Noah Centineo, Andrew Koji, Roman Reigns, David Dastmalchian, Cody Rhodes, Eric André, 50 Cent, Jason Momoa, and Mel Jarnson alongside Liang. With the Chun-Li reveal already driving fan breakdowns of the casting, the body-transformation details are likely to keep Liang in the discourse until the first trailer drops.
Filed under entertainment. Source: Empire magazine via Yahoo Entertainment and Nintendo Life. Hashtags: #StreetFighter #ChunLi
