As a Southern boy with dashing good looks, an athletic physique and a successful college football career, Matthew Knowles harbored dreams of playing in the NFL.

But when a devastating knee injury brought his footballing days to an abrupt end, the young man's life took a rather unexpected turn.

Now less than 10 years later, Knowles, an accomplished actor from Greenville, South Carolina, is on his way to becoming one of the biggest superstars in China.

The 31-year-old has landed a lead role in an epic $100 million blockbuster movie called Asura - the highest-budget production in Chinese cinema history and he tells the story of his journey exclusively to DailyMail.com

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Matthew Knowles began his Chinese adventure in 2009, after graduating from Clemson University, where a knee injury had put an end to his footballing dreams

Knowles, above with his mother, was a star player for the Clemson Tigers, for which he played defensive end

Knowles, from Greenville, South Carolina, is now one of the biggest movie stars in China. The 31-year-old became fluent in Mandarin during a gap year teaching English in Guizhou

Knowles, who became fluent in Mandarin during a gap year teaching English to impoverished children, is already the unlikely darling of Chinese TV with roles in dramas like Love Me If You Dare, Deng Xiaoping and Red Star Over China.

But while millions of adoring Chinese fans fawn over the 6ft 4in heartthrob - who first cut his teeth with a string of cheesy appearances in Chinese TV reality shows, and even as a Gladiator on the Chinese version of American Gladiators - few in the US would recognize him at all.

Knowles has just finished filming on a Chinese-language fantasy flick Asura, in which he plays a muscular, axe-wielding demigod.

And with his inclusion in one of the most anticipated films in Asia, Knowles now has his sights firmly set on Hollywood.

The star's current home in Chengdu, in China's Sichuan Province, however, is a long way from small town Greenville, South Carolina, where he was born.

Known as Ma Tai to his legion of Chinese fans, Knowles was raised by dad Mark, a Presbyterian pastor and mom Jocelyn, a middle school English teacher, along with two brothers and a sister.

'To me it's still crazy, I still wake up sometimes and think, 'Wow, I speak fluent Mandarin, Chinese, how did this happen?' he told DailyMail.com.

Knowles has landed a lead role in the epic $100 million blockbuster Asura - the highest-budget production in Chinese cinema history. He plays Rawa, a demigod, and stars alongside Wu Lei, one of China's most popular teen stars, and award-winning actor Tony Leung Ka-fai

Although it is a Chinese movie, many insiders believe the flick will cross over into the international market and become the next Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Knowles above with co-star, eighteen-year-old newcomer Zhang Yi Shang

'I'm a Southern boy, I grew up in South Carolina, no one there leaves South Carolina much less goes to Asia or China, so it's really weird how my life took me there, via this crazy route.'

Knowles first began his Chinese adventure in 2009, after graduating from Clemson University, where a knee injury put an end to his footballing dreams.

Like many graduates, Knowles was unsure what to do with his life, so decided to go traveling and see the world.

His first stop was the small town of Duyun in Guizhou Province, one of the poorest areas in China, where he went to teach English.

'I was a defensive end for Clemson Tigers but hurt my knee senior year and had three surgeries so NFL was off the table,' he recalls.

'I decided I'd like to go somewhere in the world, figure out my life but also give a year of my life to help people somehow, somewhere.

'I had a football buddy who was in China teaching English in Duyun a very poor area in the south east of China.

'My students would all come from the mountain regions down to this little city for high school.

'I taught English at the high school and at weekends and in breaks we'd hold camps in the mountains for the kids.

'We'd also go to the villages and hand out clothing and food, help with projects that kind of thing.'

Knowles was there for two years, becoming conversational in Mandarin, before deciding he wanted to stay in China until he became fluent in the language.

He moved to the city of Chengdu where he got his big break in the entertainment industry.

People became intrigued that a foreigner could sing in Mandarin - a skill he'd picked up in local karaoke halls in Duyun.

Speaking to DailyMail.com during a visit to Los Angeles Knowles said that being a 6ft 4in white man in China definitely helped him get noticed. Above, Knowles as a World War II American pilot in Chinese language mini-series Eastern Battlefield in 2016

The footall player-turned-actor rose to fame in China for the series Love Me If You Dare, in which he played Dr. Barnes (pictured)

Knowles also trained as a Thai boxer for a Chinese language independent short film

He said: 'I ended up meeting a lot of people in the entertainment industry in Chengdu - including TV hosts - and I told them I had some modeling experience, I had a small part in a movie in Singapore and I can sing Chinese songs.

'So they asked me to come on their show, then I signed with an agent. I was the first ever white guy in their agency and they put me everywhere on TV.

'They'd put me on these shows because I could sing songs very well - better than Chinese people a lot of times. They are very particular about accents so I had very good Mandarin especially when I sang and people would be like, 'Whoa, if I close my eyes I'd think you were Chinese'.

Speaking to DailyMail.com during a visit to Los Angeles Knowles said that being a 6ft 4in white man in China definitely helped him get noticed. (The average height of a Chinese man is 5ft 6in)

'So I did all kinds of reality shows, dating shows, variety shows. I hosted a travel TV show, I hosted concerts, I'd open for pop stars, I'd do acting in local TV shows and movies that were filming there.

'I did a whole season of the Chinese American Gladiator show - that was really fun.'

Speaking to DailyMail.com during a visit to Los Angeles Knowles said that being a 6ft 4in white man in China definitely helped him get noticed. (The average height of a Chinese man is 5ft 6in.)

And he was one of only a handful of white men who could sing and act in Mandarin - in the whole of China.

'They literally put me on any show like, 'Hey look it's a foreigner',' he said.

'The culture of China - especially in the poorer regions - that as a foreigner you are like an instant celebrity because you're different.

'When I was a teacher I'd go to my students' houses up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and the family would grab their photo album and show me their photos.

'I'd be flipping through and see a white guy and I'd ask 'Who's that?' and they would reply, 'It's a foreigner' and I'd say 'Yes but who is he?' they'd just reply 'It's a foreigner.' You have that kind of novelty so it opens up lots of doors.'

In 2013, after limited success in acting, Knowles decided to leave China for good and had even boxed up all his things and put them on a 'three month boat ride back home'.

'I had boarded a plane, said goodbye to China, and was on my flight path back home when I stopped to have dinner with a friend's family in Washington DC,' he recalls.

'While we were eating my mother sent me a photo of a letter that had come in the mail accepting me to Beijing Film Academy.

'I had actually all but forgotten that I had applied more than eight months before because I had heard absolutely no word from anyone.'

Knowles was accepted on a government scholarship to the prestigious Beijing Film Academy and became the first ever non-Asian student in its history. He studied acting in Mandarin for a year which he says was a turning point in his career. Knowles pictured with friends after graduating from Beijing Film Academy in 2014

Photos from his early 20s (above) show him in the mountain town of Duyun in Guizhou Province, one of the poorest areas in China, where he went to teach English from 2009-2010

He also played professional rugby for the Chinese team Chengdu Pandas

Knowles was accepted on a government scholarship to the prestigious film academy and became the first ever non-Asian student in its history.

He studied acting in Mandarin for a year which he says was a turning point in his career and really 'opened the door' for him in China.

Knowles' first big show after he finished his studies was called Red Sorghum - a remake of one of the most famous movies in China.

'I had a role as a reporter interviewing people over this tragic event - this massacre - in World War Two,' he explained.

'It was a huge success - with something like 1.7 billion views.

'Then it was just one role after another, bigger and bigger things. I had a show called Love Me If You Dare which was in English and Chinese and it had fans in Egypt and Malaysia and all over.

'A lot of shows in China are about Communism and World War Two. This show was completely different it was a psycho thriller - and I played a doctor where I helped the main guy solve the crime.'

Knowles next career turning point was landing a leading role on Asura, one of the biggest budget movies ever made in China.

He plays Rawa, a demigod, and stars alongside Wu Lei, one of China's most popular teen stars, award-winning actor Tony Leung Ka-fai and Hong Kong actress Carina Lau.

Knowles had to put on 25 pounds of pure muscle for the role and trained for up to 12 hours a day for two months to hone his martial arts skills, learn how to handle his weapons and pull off epic stunts such as flying fighting.

Although it is a Chinese language movie, many movie insiders believe the fantasy flick will cross over into the international market and become the next Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The actor enjoys the fame and sometimes finds it difficult to come back home to the US where he is virtually unknown

'Asura is an amazing project, the best crew and team I've ever worked with; Oscar winners everywhere probably the biggest budget film of all time in China,' Knowles said.

'It's a big, action, fantasy film with lots of big epic fight scenes. A huge budget movie in China would be like $30 or $40 million but this is $100 million. A normal film in China would have like 200 in the crew - this is more like 1800. It's really huge.

'My character is Rawa he's basically the Chinese equivalent of Hercules, so I'm the biggest, strongest warrior - I have a big battle axe and I hit people and they fly away and I grab them and throw them. It's a really fun role.'

Knowles has become used to being recognized on the street wherever he goes in China and has earned the nickname Chao Ren - Superman in Chinese - because of his resemblance to the superhero.

The actor enjoys the fame and sometimes finds it difficult to come back home to the US where he is virtually unknown.

'I remember one time I was in a small store in China buying water and the guy thought I was Superman,' he said.

'A lot of people see me as Superman in China but he thought I was THE Superman. And he was telling everyone: 'Superman's here, Superman's here' and the more I said, 'No I'm not,' the more he thought I really was.

'People yell Superman at me a lot. Even when I went home to South Carolina I've heard people say 'Ma Tai' and I'm like 'Who's that?' and I've turned around and there's a Chinese girl who recognizes me from watching Chinese TV.'

Knowles says he takes it all in his stride.

'Being well known in China and not in the US has its pluses and minuses,' he explains.

'It's great to be able to kind of escape. People always talk about how they handle the fame and I just say I go back to the US and nobody knows me - it's fine.

'But at the same time it's kind of awkward because I'm used to people knowing at least some of the projects I've done and what I'm talking about, but they just give me blank stares here.

'They're not familiar - at least most people aren't - with the Chinese industry yet.'

According to Knowles, it won't be long before Americans become more familiar with Chinese movies - as the industry is currently booming.

China is inching ever closer to surpassing North America as the world's largest box-office territory, its movie budgets are getting bigger, too.

Knowles (left) as a young boy in Greenville, South Carolina dressed as a cowboy next to his brother. Aged four and two. Pictured middle and right, the actor as a young boy

Hollywood studio blockbusters routinely cost $100 million to $200 million to make, but China's biggest titles seldom top $50 million.

'The film industry in China is exploding at an astronomical rate,' Knowles said.

'Right now China is the second biggest movie market in the world behind the US but probably within this year or next year they are going to surpass the box office in the US so China will be the biggest market in the world.

'Hollywood films are going to become tailored to Chinese audiences as that's where the money is. And the money is not just there, they are investing into Hollywood.

'There's huge Chinese companies coming here to Hollywood to buy things - there's talk of buying major studios.

'You have this huge push form China right now and people are starting to notice. They are starting to notice here in Hollywood especially at the executive level and investor level - those people know China is here, they're not going away and we have to work with China.'

Knowles believes that his dedication to learning Mandarin well has been one of the biggest reasons for his success in China - as well as the 'air of opportunity' that exists in the burgeoning superpower.

'I lived in the middle of nowhere completely surrounded by people who couldn't speak English so my Chinese got pretty good,' he says.

'There's only a handful of guys in the world who can be a tall white guy, who can speak perfect Mandarin and act and sing in Mandarin.

Knowles, above, with a TV host, has also been a guest on a number of television shows in China

'But the best thing about China now is there's an energy in the air of opportunity, anything you want to do you can do it in China right now, in business or in film. 'Money there is very fluid, everybody is making money and spending money, so it's a good time to do anything, because there's the opportunity for that.

'The people there are super, super friendly. For the most part they treat you well, they are overly happy to have you as their friend.

'To a certain extent in China you can still as a foreigner walk into business and be like 'Hey I have an idea and they'll listen to you whereas if I walk into Microsoft or Apple here they'd be like 'Who are you'. Great food and the culture there is really cool.'

Despite his love for China, Knowles still misses home and his next dream is to to break into Hollywood.

He is currently in Los Angeles filming a movie called Bond of Justice about the Japanese mafia.

'Absolutely and I'd love to book more roles internationally - not just in Hollywood but everywhere outside of China,' he said.

'I do miss America I miss living here and miss being around my own people and I want to come back more and more.'

'My family would love it because they could understand the things I'm filming so it would be good to do some English roles.

'I would love to break into Hollywood and the best case scenario in my mind is that my career continues in China and then hopefully the Hollywood side catches up some day and I have these two careers going in the two biggest markets in the world.'

And what does his family and friends back in Greenville, South Carolina think of his status as a Chinese movie star?

'They are proud but it's weird because they think, 'How did this happen?

'How is Matthew a superstar in China - we didn't even really know where China is'.

'But people are getting more and more excited. I went to see Dabo Swinney, my old football coach at Clemson and he was like, 'Hey what's up Chinese superstar Matthew Knowles - we're so proud of you,' so that's cool.

'I get encouragement but people definitely ask, 'When are you going to be in something in the US?'

Asura, which is now in post-production, was shot in seven locations across China, including Ningxia in the country's north and the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.

The movie is financed and produced by Jack Ma's Alibaba Pictures Group, Ningxia Film Group, Zhenjian Film and others.

The first in a planned trilogy, the film is targeting a summer 2018 release.