Street Fighter: Callina Liang Still Trains Her Thighs, Calls It ‘Therapeutic’

Most actors drop their intense workout plans as soon as filming wraps. Callina Liang is not one of them. The actress, who plays Chun-Li in Kitao Sakurai’s Street Fighter, has kept up the tough leg training she started for the role, and she says she has come to love it.

Speaking to DiscussingFilm, Liang shared her routine before filming started: “Two hours of training every single day before I got to Australia and then it was 4 hours every day for 6 weeks before we said ‘Action’.” However, she had to train even harder to make her look like a pro at kicking. She shared:

I learned so much. I think reps just helped me out. I had resistance bands on my legs, and just like I had to learn how to balance on one leg. I was kicking in and out like just all the time, learning cool moves. I fell a couple of times too. I remember I just had bruises all over me. But like the spinning kicks, jumping kicks, all sorts of kicks.

She shared that almost all of her training was focused on her legs, which helped her bulk up whether she liked it or not. While the tough routine left her with bruises, it also gave her something she did not expect. She continued her leg training. She shared:

So it just, it went hand in hand, whether I liked it or not. But I found it very therapeutic, and now I keep up with the training and it’s part of my life now. It’s great.

There is a good reason her training focused so much on her legs. Chun-Li made her debut in 1991’s Street Fighter II as the first playable female character in a fighting game, earning her the title of the First Lady of Fighting Games.

Callina Liang says she still keeps up with her leg training even after the release of ‘STREET FIGHTER’. “It was 4 hours [of kicking] every day for 6 weeks before we said ‘Action’… I found it very therapeutic, and now I keep up with the training and it’s part of my life.” https://t.co/1d2F35tfZD

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 25, 2026

She is famous for her powerful kicks, like the Spinning Bird Kick and Lightning Legs. She is also known for her muscular thighs, which have only grown bigger in Street Fighter V and Street Fighter 6. Liang had to keep up with the expectations in the film, which hit theaters on October 16, 2026, through Paramount Pictures.

Callina Liang Grew Her Thighs 6.5 cm Each in Two Months

Callina Liang’s preparation started well before cameras rolled. As she told DiscussingFilm, she trained four hours a day for the six weeks leading up to filming. The constant reps helped her improve quickly. In an interview with Empire in August, she explained how she built her legs for the role (via IGN).

She shared, “Chun-Li is all kicks. So we did a bunch of Taekwondo training, Muay Thai, and Wushu (Kung Fu).” Her diet, including 12 eggs a day and a meal every two hours, almost made her throw up. However, it also brought results. She shared:

I was on the verge of throwing up. But it worked. By the end of the shoot, my thighs had grown six-and-a-half centimeters each.

The pressure was real. Speaking to Project Big Screen, Liang revealed that she came across a Reddit thread claiming her thighs were nowhere near as big as Chun-Li’s. Instead of getting upset, she agreed with the fans. She shared:

When I look at it, as a huge fan myself, I would want whoever plays Chun-Li to be what I envision her to be in my head, and what you see of her in the video games and in the anime. She looks insane. Her body is insane.

In the end, she was happy with the choices she made for the role. During a Q&A session, director Kitao Sakurai revealed, “I saw Callina’s stunt double, and I was like, ‘What are you wearing?’ And there were like these butt pads that she had to wear just to match Callina’s physique.” Her efforts clearly worked.

Callina Liang Reveals Workout Routine For Chun-Li in Street Fighter

Before landing the role, Liang’s fitness routine looked very different. She told Women’s Health that she used to be a “Pilates and cardio girl.” Now, she is hooked on strength training. She shared, “It’s really satisfying to see how much more I can lift as I progressively overload. I can’t stop. I just want more and more muscles.”

According to Women’s Health magazine, while preparing for Street Fighter, Liang lifted weights three days a week on top of her daily stunt training. Her sessions were all about the legs. She started with heavy hip thrusts, paired with hip abductions. She shared, “My hip thrust makes me feel the strongest. I can do double my body weight.”

She then moved on to sumo deadlifts before finishing with cable step-ups and squats. These exercises made her kicks stronger and more controlled. Liang also studied the character closely. She told Empire, “I downloaded every single version of Street Fighter onto a PS5 and I recorded all of Chun-Li’s moves during fights on my phone in slow-mo, so I could play them back and study them.”

What do you think of Liang’s extensive leg training for Chun-Li? Let us know in the comments below!

Street Fighter is now playing in theaters.