Joe Taslim was born Johannes Taslim on June 23, 1981 in South Sumatera, Indonesia. He is an Judo practitioner, as well as an Indonesian model and actor who became well known in the action thriller film The Raid: Redemption (2012) and went on to perform in films including Fast & Furious 6 (2013) Star Trek Beyond (2016) and to star as Iko in the action thriller The Night Comes For Us (2018). He also plays Li Yong in the action, drama, historical Cinemax series Warrior (2019).
Having been exposed to martial arts at an early age, his martial arts training includes wushu, judo, and taekwondo. However, judo became his passion and this led to his career as a professional judo athlete. He won several gold medals from 1997 -2009 in Asian and Indonesian National championships.