Matthew McConaughey has opened up about his little-known past in Australia, revealing that his brief stint as an exchange student taught him life lessons that have stayed with him ever since.

The Oscar winner, 55, spent a year Down Under in 1988, staying with a family in Warnervale, on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

The Hollywood hunk admitted that his experience immediately jolted him to reality. 5

“I learnt a lot about myself and who I wanted to be,” he told Stellar magazine . “Those are priceless memories and lessons I needed at that time in my life.”

During that year, the then-18-year-old threw himself into any work opportunities he could find, including jobs as a bank teller and legal assistant, in order to make ends meet.

His reality was a far cry from the life he

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