Corey Calliet Got it Out the Mud and Gives it Back to the Community

If a Hollywood body needs to transform for a role, Corey Calliet is who they call. Michael B. Jordan’s turn from lovable everyman to action star? That was Corey. Lizzo’s pivot to strength training? Also Corey. Earlier this year, he launched his own app, ACHV by Corey Calliet, and his client list reads like a who’s who of sports, music, and film. But the real transformation can’t be captured in the mirror or on the screen.

“I grew up in New Orleans,” he says. “Fitness wasn’t a big thing back in those days. But I think the aspect of growing up in poverty, growing up in hard times, kind of shaped me to who I am.” Corey lost his mother at age four and was raised in a house full of extended family, and not unlike many Black men, learned how to hustle for survival early. “I'm a church kid, but ended up turning my back on that,” he said solemnly. “In Louisiana, it sounds crazy, but hustling was like a rite of passage for young boys because that's all we saw.”

Fitness came later, and although Corey’s life changed drastically, he took with him the grit he acquired growing up.

It started with an ego boost. “I just wanted to look good,” he said, laughing, “And I think every guy does that. They act like they don't, but you just want to look good so women could be like, ‘Oh, you fine.’” Around the same time Corey was leaning into fitness, he became a father and took a job as a postal worker.

One day on his route, he looked down and saw a fitness magazine sitting on top of the pile, and something clicked. Between 2003 and 2008, he worked out consistently and even performed in his first bodybuilder show.

Once Corey saw the vision, he couldn’t avoid the inevitable. “I quit to become a trainer, which is the craziest thing to do in the South at that time because you're not going to leave a government job to go be no trainer. You don't even know if you’re gonna get paid.” But quit he did, and led by a burning persistence to see himself beyond his circumstances, Corey took a leap.

As he shared his journey on Instagram, Corey attracted his first celebrity client. After he trained Michael B. Jordan for 2015’s Fantastic Four, the first Creed film followed. Jordan’s incredible transformation was plain as day and on the big screen for the world to see, setting Corey’s career on fire.

Now, with a decade-long resume and a stellar reputation in fitness, Corey is refocusing on giving back, starting with the very things he needed growing up. “I remember waking up at 5 in the morning, catch the bus over to the Super Dome, it's freezing cold the week before Christmas, and I'm in line with my aunt and my cousins all day to get a [toy] fire truck,” he recalled. Knowing what it meant to receive something so simple, Corey, now based in Los Angeles, poured back into the neighborhood’s families. Last year, he launched his non-profit, Calliet Cares.

It started with a turkey giveaway last Thanksgiving. But Corey’s vision is much bigger: in-school programs, mentorship pipelines, and partnerships that don’t just throw money at problems but build real relationships. “Sometimes, nonprofits are so big they can't see the little thing that’s right there.” Whether as a mentor, a connector, or a catalyst, Corey is determined to fill the gaps he once fell through — and leave a legacy that’s built to last.