Jeff Probst’s Worst ‘Survivor’ Injury Involved a Machete

Jeff Probst has been heading up Survivor for 40 seasons now, which means the famous host has seen more than his fair share of accidents and injuries on set. However, while those are usually relegated to the castaways, it turns out that’s not always the case. In fact, Jeff Probst once accidentally cut himself very badly while working on Survivor — and it’s all thanks to one coconut. Here’s what happened to the reality host. 

Jeff Probst cut himself while working on ‘Survivor’

When it comes to Survivor host Jeff Probst, fans probably envision something of a rough and tumble kind of guy, someone who’s ready to tough it out in nature. However, on an episode of The Rachael Ray Show, Probst once revealed that’s not quite the case. 

When discussing some of his worst injuries on Survivor, Probst revealed, “Boy, I have quite a few. One, my worst probably was, we had this guy on the show — I mean I’ve been stung by a jellyfish right here.” Probst then pointed at his crotch. 

“I had a scorpion — you know. But the worst one was, we had this guy on the show. This really cool dude, this local island guy. And he was showing us all these tricks of the trade, and one thing he would do is he would hold a coconut, and he would take his machete and chop it, spin it. Chop it, spin it. Chop it, and take the top off,” continued the host. 

“And he made it look so easy! And I said, ‘Do you think I could do that?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah man, take my machete.’ I do the first hit, and it glances off and slices my wrist open. And it does that thing where the skin peels back and at first nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, bum bum, bum bum, I went green, I laid back on the rock. The doctors came over and took me out on the boat ride and said, ‘You just missed that thing that would have killed your hand,’” explained Probst. 

He then added, “You know in my mind, I was gonna be with my woman, wherever she may be in my future. I’d be walking down the beach, say hey baby, want a little coconut? Chop chop chop, pop it open. But I’m not that guy!” 

Not the first near-disaster on ‘Survivor’ 

That’s not the first time Jeff Probst almost encountered disaster on Survivor. And while the machete incident may have been more of a physical incident, Probst has revealed that the season finale once almost went totally off the rails. 

Probst told Entertainment Weekly that a producer working on Survivor at the time forgot to bring the votes to the scene of the finale for Survivor: Gabon. 

Probst explained, “One of our other crew members, Chris Campbell, had a motorcycle. So he gets on his motorcycle and he starts racing to our production offices. He gets to the office. He’s one of the three people who has the combo, but he doesn’t have a key to the office where the safe is! So this is the truth: He breaks the glass.”

It was a close call

While Campbell was able to get into the office, the clock was still ticking, and he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it back in time. So Jeff Probst explains that he resorted to the fax machine and a little forgery.

“He faxes every single vote and we’re now in a really small room at CBS with [producer/production designer] Dan Munday and a CBS executive. And Dan is retracing every single vote by hand. And the live show is playing, and the time is ticking down! Now we’re 15 minutes away!” continued Probst. 

Munday was able to finish in time, but Campbell returned just before the scene with the real votes in hand.