Zac Efron, who arrived at Dancing with the Stars to support his brother Dylan during their latest taping, has unexpectedly become the center of a renewed public debate after a photo of him went viral for reasons that had nothing to do with the show.
The image spread across social platforms shortly after, where Zac attended with his younger sister Olivia. The actor had spent the night cheering every time Dylan appeared on camera.
Highlights
- Fans say Zac Efron finally looks “normal again” after a new DWTS photo goes viral.
- Efron said the changes were due to his jaw muscles overworking as he recovered.
- Critics argued the changes were due to cosmetic surgery, not the accident.
But the online reaction quickly zeroed in on Zac’s face, with thousands of viewers saying he finally looked “normal” again.
“People don’t understand that jaw surgery completely morphs your face… I get so annoyed when people say he got botched filler or implants. The man literally had to get his face put back together,” one fan wrote.
Zac Efron’s fans believe his appearance has finally gone “back to normal” after he attended Dancing with the Stars
Image credits: Samir Hussein/WireImage | Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
In the hours after the photo went viral, fans split into two camps.
Some defended Zac, echoing the long-standing explanation that his altered appearance traced back to the 2013 accident in which he shattered his jaw after slipping and hitting a granite fountain.
“He almost di*d because of the accident,” one supporter said. “Do not assume every person in Hollywood gets surgery for vanity reasons.”
"He's finally back to normal," another celebrated.
Image credits: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images | Netflix
Others, however, were far more skeptical. They pushed the narrative that Efron had undergone cosmetic procedures that ended up hurting his image.
“If you undergo cosmetic surgery for vanity, then you’re responsible for whatever mean words and depression follow,” a critic wrote.
Image credits: Instagram / @zacdowntoearth
The divide became sharper when another commenter questioned the official timeline entirely:
“The jaw injury happened in 2013. But his face completely changed in 2021, eight years later. It had nothing to do with the injury; it was a cosmetic change done years later,” the user said.
Image credits: emkenobi
This isn’t the first time this argument has been brought up in online debates surrounding Efron’s appearance.
Critics insist that no reconstructive swelling or muscle imbalance would appear nearly a decade after the injury. Supporters argue the opposite, defending Efron’s version of events.
Efron said that his jaw muscles grew over the years as the result of a 2013 fracture
Image credits: DWTS / Entertainment Tonight
To understand whether the timeline is legitimate, it’s necessary to turn to Efron’s own recorded comments.
In 2022, the actor explained that after the 2013 fracture, the muscles in his jaw and face began overcompensating to stabilize the injury.
His masseter muscles, he said, grew disproportionately large as a result. When he briefly stopped physical therapy while filming abroad, the imbalance intensified, creating the dramatically widened jawline that went viral in 2021.
“The masseters just grew… really, really big,” Efron said at the time.
Image credits: DWTS / Entertainment Tonight
Experts in maxillofacial surgery support the plausibility of this.
According to a 2025 study by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, long-term swelling, nerve disruption, compensatory muscle hypertrophy, and asymmetry can take months or years to resolve, and can even reappear when rehab lapses.
Some patients require continuous therapy to manage the effects.
Despite this, cosmetic speculation has only grown louder. Plastic surgeons have listed every possibility from fillers to implants to jaw contouring.
Plastic surgeons believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle, with Efron trying to “fix” his jaw with cosmetic procedures
Image credits: Instagram / Dylan Efron
In 2023, celebrity facial plastic surgeon Dr. Sam Rizk told The New York Post that, in his opinion, Zac Efron’s explanation does not fully account for the extent of the changes.
“He probably took the opportunity, in addition to correcting it, to do something better,” Rizk said.
Image credits: Instagram / Zac Efron
According to him, the actor’s jawline shows signs of additional procedures.
“He might have had jaw advancements where they pull the chin a little bit more forward because his chin looks a little bit more prominent. Or a chin implant or mandibular angle implants in the lower jaw.”
Image credits: GettyImages | DWTS / Entertainment Tonight
Rizk also pointed to changes around Efron’s eyes and brows.
“He always had a straight eyebrow, and now they have more of an arch,” he said. “His eyebrow is a little bit higher, which indicates he had some type of brow lift or he had Botox.”
Rizk said he also noticed fuller cheeks.
“Cheeks don’t get fuller as you age,” he explained. “You lose volume in the cheeks when you age. When he was younger he had a flatter cheek.”
While he did not believe Efron had cheek implants, he said the actor “most likely” received filler.
"Be nice." Efron's fans pushed back against criticism of the actor's looks
