Phúc Mập’s one of those rare individuals you meet every now and again. A guy who moved to a different country, fell in love with it, and then managed to break through to the other side and become—in the eyes of both locals and fellow expats—someone who was no longer considered an outsider. Watch any of his YouTube videos and you’ll see just how evident the love Vietnamese people have for him is. Nowadays it’s impossible for Phúc Mập to make a video on the streets of Vietnam without some locals calling out his name, eager to have a chat with a person who could look no more different from them and yet feel like family. And no matter what situation Phúc Mập might be in, he’s always willing to talk. It’s a testament not only to his character, but to the reciprocal love that he has for Vietnam and its people.
Before people called him Phúc Mập, his name was Hurley. Born and raised in Florida, Hurley’s upbringing in America was relatively normal apart from two aspects that might’ve hinted at his future stardom as a content creator and television personality. The first was his father. Hurley described his father as his biggest inspiration for all of the work he’s done so far. The reason for this lies in his dad’s personality and outlook on life. For him, the world is something of a comedy, where jokes and laughter serve as the antidote to boredom and suffering. Nothing was off limits for Hurley’s father, who, even in the direst circumstances, found a way to make light of a situation and leave the people around him in stitches. This made a huge impression on the young Hurley, and growing up he idolised his father, going so far as to promise himself never to turn into a stiff, humourless individual when he became older. The second point has to do with Hurley's foray into content making during university. But let me provide some more background.
When Hurley graduated from high school, he enrolled in the University of Central Florida in Orlando to study Criminal Justice with a minor in Legal Studies. However, given that Hurley’s decision to study law never came out of a particularly strong interest in the subject, it wasn’t long before he lost motivation upon graduating with his degree. At the time he was training in jiu jitsu and thanks to a conversation with a member from his gym, he found work as a bouncer at a local bar while he figured out his next step. So began a period of debauchery in Hurley’s life. While he kept himself decently fit thanks to jiu jitsu, he went from being a bouncer to a barback and then a bartender, and being in that environment meant that drinking became routine. It was around this time that Hurley started making videos. A stark contrast from the content he shoots now, these centered on wandering around downtown Orlando filming pranks, fights, and drunk people. While he shakes his head and laughs in hindsight, in this way Hurley’s father and his post-university stint with content creation pointed to his future endeavors in Vietnam.
Working in a bar, Hurley fell into a routine that revolved around liquor. He’d spend long nights on the job which tended to mean long nights drinking, both during his shift when friends and customers bought him drinks, and afterwards once he clocked out. As he put it, he’d plateaued. His life didn’t seem to be moving in any meaningful direction. However, since he wasn’t sure what to do to change course, Hurley could only continue on the path he’d set out for himself. During this period of meandering confusion, Hurley had a conversation with another member from his jiu jitsu gym. An older, successful guy who’d travelled around the world quite a bit, Hurley had always looked up to him. This is why when the two sat down for a talk one evening, his words struck him so deeply. He told Hurley that if he continued down this path he was on, in twenty years he’d be nothing more than a drunk in a bar. Hurley knew he was right. Given that Downtown Orlando’s nightlife scene was pretty much staffed by members of local MMA gyms, Hurley had no trouble finding a job and went so far as to work shifts at nine different bars. He knew if he didn’t do something now, he could very well end up becoming that guy his buddy warned him about. He needed to get out.
The idea to try teaching English abroad came to Hurley as serendipitously as many life-changing decisions do. But once he found out about it, he knew this was his getaway ticket. He started looking for countries to move to. Initially he was thinking of either South Korea or Japan but after some thought he came to the conclusion that they were already a little too developed for the type of experience he was seeking. If he was going to move somewhere, he wanted to be in a place that was a little more raw, somewhere that wasn’t as well-known where he could really start anew. Southeast Asia became the region of choice and after some research online, he landed on Vietnam. From there, things moved quickly. There was a Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program called LanguageCorps (now defunct) that helped streamline the process. The idea was prospective teachers traveled to Cambodia first where they completed their TESOL program. From there, they relocated to Vietnam for placement at a school. Hurley figured he may as well make it more of an adventure and so he decided to head to Thailand and Malaysia a month before the course began. What ensued further cemented in Hurley’s mind the fact that Vietnam was the right decision. Long story short, in Thailand he succumbed to his first ever bout of food poisoning, which pretty much left him bed-ridden for a good deal of his time there. Then in Malaysia he experienced some rudeness from the locals which befuddles him to this day. Finally, once he made it to Cambodia he was shocked by the general disarray of the place. When he finally came over to Vietnam, he stayed in a relatively affluent area in District 3, which, after the bumpy journey from Thailand, Malaysia, to Cambodia, seemed a bit like heaven. Hurley had made it.
Thanks to a collaboration between LanguageCorps and VUS, one of Vietnam’s leading English language centers, Hurley was able to find work with the company after completing his TESOL program. He’d go on to spend eight years at VUS’s Út Tịch campus, an experience that he described as one of the best and most fulfilling jobs he ever had. He took pictures of nearly all of his classes and when he looks back, he loves seeing the development not only of himself, but also many of his students. There were some he taught for years, and the pictures reflected their growth from young boys and girls into bright-eyed teenagers ready to take on the world. The love Hurley had for his work and students was reciprocal, with many seeking him out to write recommendation letters for their university aspirations. On top of this, once he began gaining popularity as Phúc Mập in the latter years of his tenure, many students were understandably starstruck when he’d walk through the door and they’d realise that Phúc Mập was going to be their English teacher. That alone created the perfect recipe for classes that were as fun as they were educational.
With his work at VUS off to a good start, everything seemed to be going well since Hurley arrived in Saigon. Then, it got even better. Hurley and his future-wife started dating in 2016. Besides meeting someone he loved, cared, and respected, this relationship can be seen as the catalyst for why Phúc Mập came to be. It all started when his then girlfriend invited Hurley over to her house to meet her family. At that time Hurley had been in Vietnam for two years but he couldn’t speak the language beyond the requisite xin chào and cảm ơn. This lack of practice is why when he visited, he made the mistake of referring to his girlfriend’s mother as chị instead of cô, the former pronoun being used for someone closer to your age and as such, less respectful than the latter. It caused a moment of embarrassment as his girlfriend told him to use the other pronoun and with that, the seed that would impel Hurley to study Vietnamese was planted. However, it wasn’t until a few more visits to his girlfriend’s family home that the seed really began to take root. During those visits, Hurley recalled how he’d be sitting with the rest of the family but unable to actually participate in any of the conversation beyond a few grunts and nods. If you’ve ever lived in a country where you don't speak the local tongue, this is probably a situation you’ve been in yourself. In Vietnam, it happens all the time. Given how friendly the locals are, I’ve been invited to sit down for more coffees, beers, or meals than I can count and while I appreciate their generosity, there comes a point after the usual pleasantries are exchanged when the people who invited you realise—with a kind of grim foreboding—that you don’t speak any Vietnamese. The first few xin chào’s were funny enough for them but once you’ve exhausted that piece of vocabulary there is nothing you can do but sit in a kind of awkward, shameful silence. This is part of the reason why I started studying Vietnamese after three years in the country and it’s why Hurley finally decided enough was enough. He had to learn.
Hurley started by enlisting the help of Phi, a tutor popular amongst several VUS teachers he knew. They met up to study twice a week and while that might not sound like much, Hurley was a dedicated student and went above and beyond their bi-weekly sessions. When I asked him for tips on how to improve, he gave me two pieces of advice. First, he suggested reading a book titled Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner. In summary, the book talks about how in most languages you have several hundred words that are used on a daily basis. As such, if you commit to learning a few new words per day, you’ll be confident on a conversational level in as little as one or two years. In order to do that, Hurley said he utilised a technique known as spaced repetition. Usually performed with flashcards, the idea is to study newer and harder flashcards more frequently and easier ones with less frequency. Again, over time this compounds and before you know it, you’ve learned a substantial amount of a language with a tool as simple as a flashcard. Besides this, Hurley also credits his tutor Phi. She had a way of distilling the language down to its roots which gave Hurley a much more comprehensive understanding of Vietnamese. With his teacher and techniques in place, Hurley studied as hard as he could. The last thing he stresses—and perhaps the most important—is to keep going with language learning. It’s an ongoing process, something you have to work at continuously if you are to reach that coveted position of being considered fluent. Naturally, there will be bad days before there are good, but so long as you keep going, you’ll begin to see the fruits of your labour.
The fruits of learning Vietnamese are plentiful. Hurley talked about how Vietnamese people are friendly to begin with but once you can converse beyond a simple greeting, the way in which Vietnam opens its arms to you is nothing short of astounding. While it took him two years before he felt comfortable speaking the language, his life in the country improved with every passing day. For one, every time he met with his girlfriend’s family from that point onwards, he was getting to relate to them in a way that otherwise would’ve been impossible. Long gone were the days of mixing up chị and cô, now he could sit with them and talk, and in this way they became more like family to him than ever before. With the acquisition of this new skill, Hurley’s life underwent a drastic change. However, as a result of a series of events, even more was around the corner.
First, Hurley—who’d still been training in jiu jitsu—got injured. As a result, he had a substantial amount of free time on his hands. Then he went on holiday to South Korea to visit a friend. This friend had a particular love of watching travel vlogs so while Hurley was there, he was exposed to similar videos. During one such viewing, his friend suggested—half-jokingly and half-seriously—that Hurley give vlogging a shot. According to him, Hurley already had experience with content creation back in America, but more so than that, now that he could speak Vietnamese he could fill a niche that as of then didn’t really exist in Vietnam’s content creator circuit. Hurley got to thinking. He knew it was a good idea and the more he thought about it, the more he knew his friend was right. There was a gap for foreign content creators who could speak Vietnamese—why couldn’t he be the one to fill it? When Hurley spoke to his girlfriend about it, she thought it was a good idea as well. Still, there were some factors he needed to consider. If he was going to do this, he knew he wanted to adopt his father’s approach to life by making funny, bizarre videos that never took themselves too seriously. Having said that, he knew he’d have to tread a fine line. Ultimately, while he wanted to make content that would be too outlandish not to watch, he also had a deep love and respect for Vietnam. In short, he never wanted Vietnamese people to feel like he was outright ridiculing them. With this in mind, in December of 2018, Hurley decided to go all in. He’d married his girlfriend by then and he promised his now extended family that he’d become one of the most recognisable foreigners in Vietnam in a few years. With that, he made a YouTube account and called himself Phúc Mập. There was a sense of destiny in the name, given that it was taken from a trip on the Hải Vân Pass he’d made with his same friend who suggested he start a YouTube channel. He’d chosen the Vietnamese name, Phúc Bảo (precious blessing), for their travels, and one day they met a local lady who told Hurley that if that was his friend’s name, he had to be called Phúc Béo (chubby blessing). When he returned to Saigon, his family changed it to Phúc Mập (a more southern version of Phúc Béo). The rest, some might say, is history.
One of Phúc Mập’s first videos was a perfect representation of his content-making philosophy. For Phúc Mập fans, the video is one of his most legendary. For those who haven’t seen it, the description reads as follows: “My name is Phúc Mập, and I've lived in Sài Gòn for the past 5 years. I decided it was the right time to get a pet, but unfortunately, pet dogs get stolen here a lot. I figured a chicken would be a better option. Also, I wanted to fit in with the locals in my community, so I went to buy some apparel at the local market. I thought I had bought an áo dài, but I was wrong…”. What ensues is a ten-minute video featuring Phúc Mập wearing a Grab helmet and a light blue đồ bộ (pyjamas Vietnamese aunties always wear) as he carries around a chicken while talking to locals on Saigon’s streets. Needless to say, the video was a hit. It was a perfect blend of bizarre comedy while also remaining respectful given that ultimately, Vietnam’s culture and people weren’t the brunt of the joke—Phúc Mập himself was. His YouTube followers jumped to fifty-thousand in a month and today, the video has amassed over one million views. A star was born.
From there, Phúc Mập went on a roll. He posted constantly and always came up with new ideas that lent his videos a fresh, original take. Besides this, he also sought out collaborations with other content creators which allowed him to tap into a range of audiences. There were people like Muay Thai world champion Nguyễn Trần Duy Nhất, Markeiz Ryan, a fellow American YouTuber, and Micka Chu, a French online personality. To date, he’s worked with more than fifty other content creators on YouTube. Despite all these many collabs, when you watch his videos, you get the sense that Phúc Mập’s best collaborators were the locals he met wherever he went in Vietnam. He was constantly on the ground, interacting with whoever he came across which gave his content an authenticity and a sense that you were more like a friend going along with him on his adventures. In doing so, you witnessed the wackiness, the humour, and the ultimate beauty of the country. 2019 shaped up to be a whirlwind year, and it culminated with an end of year collaboration with a lady known as Bà Tan. She ran a YouTube channel in which she would cook gigantic portions of various dishes. At the time she was one of the fastest growing channels in the world and to this day she remains one of the most popular channels in Vietnam. With their collaboration, Phúc Mập’s channel nearly doubled overnight, introducing his unique content and humour to a whole new wave of subscribers.
In the following year, a few changes occurred. First, Hurley moved into his wife’s family home. This goes to show just how close he’d gotten with them, not to mention his Vietnamese language abilities which had improved to such an extent that he could converse with them without much issue. Besides his mother and father in law, there was his brother-in-law, sister-in-law, as well as nieces and nephews all in one house. He enjoyed the time he spent there but then came Covid which made the situation trickier. At one point, pandemic measures meant that Hurley couldn’t go outside. He taught online at VUS but as for his content creation, he had to find a workaround. This is where he started making videos about life inside the house, from a humorous Wife Knows Best video poking fun at the dynamic between husbands and wives to another titled the Differences Between Vietnam and the USA. Compared to his previous videos that showed Hurley out and about in Vietnam, with these, he was forced to get creative given that his set was confined to his family home. Once restrictions were lifted, he got back on track with content creation. As he hit a stride with YouTube, more opportunities began to sprout on television.
Hurley had gotten an offer to start his own television program as early as the summer of 2019, roughly half a year after he’d begun posting on YouTube. This first production was titled Một ngày của Phúc Mập (A Day With Phúc Mập). Essentially, he was given free reign to pick fun things he wanted to do in the city and then they would go do them. The result was a show made up of episodes featuring Phúc Mập doing water yoga, archery, and even one where they visited an oyster farm. Following that, at the end of 2019 he did another show called Ai Là Số 1 (Who Is Number One?). The point of this show was to gather a number of foreigners who could speak Vietnamese, and then five celebrities will put them through a series of tests in an attempt to guess which foreigner had been in Vietnam the longest. To Hurley’s surprise, he ended up getting picked as the longest living resident. From there, there was Nhập Gia Tùy Tục (the title is based on a Vietnamese proverb which is similar to the English proverb, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”). The show was made up of three celebrities and six Vietnamese-speaking foreigners. The foreign guests would be presented with a variety of Vietnam-related topics, at which point they would debate their perspective. All in all, Hurley said Nhập Gia Tùy Tục was a humbling experience. While he was good enough at Vietnamese to now be on national television, he was also in a room full of natives and expats who had lived in the country and studied the language for much longer than he had. This experience pushed him to study Vietnamese even harder.
While each of his appearances on Vietnamese television further embedded Phúc Mập into the cultural psyche of the country, none were as momentous as when he was a guest on 2 Ngày 1 Đêm (2 Days 1 Night). One of the country’s most popular shows, his guest appearance showcased just how far he’d come since he’d made his decision to become a content creator. On top of this, it also felt like a huge step in the promise he’d made to his extended family about becoming one of the most well-known foreigners in Vietnam. Little did he know just how big of an effect it would have on his life. The gist of the show is based around celebrity guests travelling some part of Vietnam—usually for two days and one night—while performing various challenges along the way. Adding a layer of surrealism onto Phúc Mập’s appearance was the fact that 2 Ngày 1 Đêm was his wife’s favourite show, and so he knew that she’d be watching him at home. Perhaps out of sheer excitement or nerves, the only advice she could give him was not to talk too much. Of course, Hurley knew that talking as much as possible was exactly what he was going to do. The year was 2023 and by then, Hurley had been on his share of Vietnamese channels which meant that he’d built relationships with a number of other television personalities. Two out of the six celebrity hosts were individuals he’d worked with before while the other guests on that episode were two foreign content creator friends, Jongrak and Will in Vietnam. Essentially, he was in good company. What ensued was one of Phúc Mập’s best showings on Vietnamese television. He talked, he cracked jokes, and he played his role as he knew he should. But just as everything was going well, there came a moment of reckoning.
One of the challenges the production team at 2 Ngày 1 Đêm had set out for Hurley, Jongrak, and Will was to run five kilometres. Naturally, even though Jongrak and Will were both fit and perfectly capable of running the distance, the task was set for Hurley. He knew that this was just part of the gig, that everyone’s playing a part in the entertainment industry and when viewership is of the utmost importance, getting the out of shape American guy to run would be the best chance to ensure that people tune in. Still, for Hurley, it was one of those breaking-the-fourth-wall moments, where he took a step back and examined himself and the situation he was in. There was only one question he had: how did he let himself get to that point? The reality was, while content creating had resulted in a myriad of social, financial, and professional benefits, it’d come at the cost of his health. Ever since his jiu jitsu injury, martial arts and exercise stopped being important pillars in his life. Instead, in the attempt to build a career for himself in entertainment, he’d focused on making videos, a lot of which had to do with going around eating and reviewing Vietnam’s bountiful cuisine. At the time of his jiu jitsu injury, he’d been the fittest he ever had in his life at 167lbs (75kg). When he had to run those five kilometers he’d reached his heaviest at 225lbs (102kg). While he managed to complete the challenge, he knew that something had to change.
Over the last three years, a lot’s changed for Hurley. For one, he’s welcomed a son into the world, which once more transformed Hurley’s life. More than anything, now he wants to be the best father he can be, and part of that means simply being around for as long as possible. This is why his son has also served as an immense source of motivation for getting in shape. Today, fitness—whether it’s lifting, cardio, or boxing—has returned to being a major part of Hurley’s life which has resulted in numerous benefits, from sponsorships with a gym equipment company called Mikolo to opportunities to create more fitness-minded content with Vietnamese athletes. One such example of this was a collaboration with Nam Phan, a former UFC fighter who stands as a pioneer in Vietnam’s MMA scene. Nam Phan now runs a gym in California where he helps the next generation of fighters and this is where the two met. This brings me to the next major change in Hurley’s life. While Vietnam has been his home for years, nowadays he goes back and forth to America too.
The decision to travel between both countries came partially because it made sense and partially out of necessity. It started once people began to approach Hurley with requests to MC their weddings. The couples were usually a Vietnamese person marrying someone from abroad, which meant that they were looking for an individual who could speak both Vietnamese and English. Hurley fit the bill. Over time, however, a lot of these requests were coming from people who lived in America, which is why it made sense to spend more time there. So far, he’s MC’d for weddings in cities like Saigon and Nha Trang in Vietnam. As for America, he’s travelled to Virginia, Maryland, and Florida for the big day and has plans to venture to Arizona, Oregon, and California for even more. Hurley’s decision to spend more time in America also came out of an increasing number of restaurant sponsorships, not to mention the fact that his wife is in the process of becoming an American citizen. As such, she spends about six months of the year in the States in order to get her citizenship. Having said that, she’s fine with Hurley returning to Vietnam whenever he has to work.
Whether you only know him as Phúc Mập or you’ve had the chance to talk to him as Hurley, one thing that’s undeniable is the love he has for Vietnam. Ultimately, that’s what it all boils down to. Even when I asked him whether he had any goals for the future, all he said was that he’s still trying to make good on that promise he made to his wife’s family about becoming the most recognisable foreigner in Vietnam. In my eyes, he’s already accomplished that, but for Hurley, it doesn’t end there. For him, it’s not enough to be the most well-known, he also wants to be seen as the most respectful. Part of the reason he says this is due to the recent wave of content creators who seem to make it a point of disrespecting a country’s customs and people wherever they go. Phúc Mập wants to be better than that. He’s got no desire to make fun of Vietnam, rather, he loves it so much that he went as far as learning the language just so he could talk to its people and get to know them more. And in doing so look at everything he’s done. He’s given back to Vietnam just as much as he’s received from it, so it’s no wonder why whenever he’s walking on the streets somewhere in the country, locals can’t help but call out his name. At that point, you know it’s all true. They love him just as much as he loves them.
