"Want to feel my bump?"

Last week, Shane Smith guided a reporter's hand over his round belly to a soft bulge under his shirt: a hernia. The 42-year old founder of the growing Vice media group said he ruptured his gut while fighting a guy in Mexico. He was on the job at the time of his ill-fated man hoist, shooting a video of the sort that has taken him to Yemen and North Korea.

His...