Hunk

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Those muscles aren't the only big thing he's got. Just ask his girlfriend.

He's such a tall, dark, strong and handsome brute. —The Bimbettes fawning over Gaston during the song Belle, Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)

The classic European and American standard of male beauty, the hunk is two things: handsome and manly.

His face tends to be squarish and sharp-featured, often with a prominent chin. He has big, well-muscled arms and a large torso with pronounced muscles. He also has fairly thick, muscular legs, though they get less attention. It is often implied that he is as well-endowed between the legs as in the arms. The hunk may or may not have body hair, depending on the time period, and facial hair is negotiable. Guaranteed, however, to adopt Perma-Stubble during his choice moments as Estrogen Brigade Bait.

Clothing tends to be simple and timeless. Nowadays, a hunk's casual wardrobe will consist of tight jeans and either a tank top, tight T-shirt, or flannel shirt (if he wears one at all. works oriented at a female audience have him not in increasing numbers). For work and formal events, a smart suit is a given.

The hero of a story, if male, is frequently a hunk, particularly in an action series. If the lead character is a woman, the leading man or the heroine's Love Interest, if not both, tends to be a hunk.

It is rare for a hunk to be an outright villain. However, a nasty hunk is often used to deliver the Moral of the Story. In this case, the (usually young, often teenage) heroine will imagine him to be a perfect Knight in Shining Armour type, but he's actually a Prince Charmless, Jerkass or vain prick, thus proving that one should not judge another based on appearances.

Mr. Fanservice is usually one of these. Contrast Pretty Boy. East Asian pop-culture tends to use Bishonen as the go-to "hot guy standard" instead. Not (usually) to be confused with Hulk

Examples of Hunk include:

Advertising

• Calvin Klein hires hunks as underwear models.
• Abercrombie and Fitch is built on this trope.
• The Old Spice Guy openly exploits and lampshades this trope.
• Three Words. Bod Men Fragrance.

Anime and Manga

• Gene Starwind in Outlaw Star.
• Guts of Berserk due to constantly fighting since childhood.
• Portgas D. Ace in One Piece is a skilled fighter that served the pirate Whitebeard.
  • Roronoa Zoro due to a lifetime of training.
• Son Goku in Dragon Ball is Earth's mightiest warrior and always looks forward to training.
  • His son, Gohan in his teen years.
  • Future Trunks due to training under Son Gohan in a Bad Future.
  • It's pretty much easier to list the males in Dragon Ball that aren't hunks.
• Inugami of Wolf Guy Wolfen Crest.
• Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez of Bleach
  • Main protagonist Kurosaki Ichigo has his moments. He's constantly training to ensure he stays powerful enough to keep his loved ones safe.
• Shin Seijurou from Eyeshield 21.
• Kamina from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann due to his life as a digger.
• Kurogane from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.
• Tyranno Hassleberry from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX is presumably this due to his hobby of digging for dinosaur fossils.
  • Damon due to survival training in the jungle and letting his hair grow. He's basically a Expy of Tarzan.
  • Kagemaru became a villainous example when his youth is restored and empowered by the Sacred Beasts. It's shortlived when he and the Sacred Beasts are defeated by Jaden.
• Souma Mizuno from Fire in His Fingertips is quite buff due to his job as a firefighter. He's also quite well-endowed according to his girlfriend and uses that along with his strength training to be quite the lover to her. He's also the page image.
  • Jun Hase and Yuuki Izumi for the same reason as Souma.
• Rekka from Blood Shadow due to training with the Crimson Lotus nearly his whole life.
• Akuji Yamamoto from Daiakuji due to him being a soldier and fighting to stop the misandrist government, Womenrica.
• Due to lacking magic his entire life, Asta from Black Clover began training his body from an early age to make up for it.

Comic Books

• Superman is usually drawn this way. Clark Kent varies by the artist.
• Bruce Wayne aka Batman is also frequently drawn in a hunky manner.
• Most male comic book heroes, really. It would probably be quicker to list the aversions of this trope.
• Bruce Banner averts it, being short and skinny. His alter-ego doesn't fare much better, as he is generally drawn as extremely muscular but troll-faced. However, during the 90s Bruce Banner and the Hulk were merged into a single persona and this new incarnation was drawn with the Hulk's body and Banner's face, creating a (green) hunk.

Film

• Gaston from Beauty and the Beast is a rare villainous example.
• Prince Charming in the Shrek movies. Also a villainous hunk.
  • There's also Shrek in his human form.
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's role as the name role of The Scorpion King was parodied in Mad Magazine. Let's just say they named the parody The Scorpion Hunk.
  • The Rock is cast this way in virtually every role.
• In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Viktor Krum is portrayed as this despite being unattractive and gangly in the books.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Hulk has always been portrayed with Mark Ruffalo's face, rather than the "troll face" mentioned under Comic Books above.
• Being played by Mark Wahlberg, David McCall from the 1996 film Fear is not only a rare villainous example but one that's pure evil.
• A lot of male pornstars, gay or straight.
  • Lee Stone is a good example. Not only is he very muscular, but he is massive between the legs, killing the "muscular men are Compensating for Something small" stereotype. This made him one of the most sought after adult actors in the industry until his retirement.

Literature

• Carrot Ironfoundersson in Discworld is described as being pretty hunky.

Live-Action TV

• Angel in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, so much so that Even the Guys Want Him.
• Booth in Bones, who shares an actor with Angel.
• Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. They even have a pet Pretty Boy. Or Merlin has them. No one's really sure which. ^{[dead link]}
• The title character of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
• Both Dylan Hunt and Tyr Anasazi in Andromeda. Again, Hunt and Hercules are played by the same actor.
• Fraser in Due South
• From Degrassi, Spinner, Sean, Jay and Riley fit this trope to Memetic Sex God levels.
• Person of Interest gives us the very attractive Jim Caviezel.
• John Crichton of Farscape and Cameron Mitchell of Stargate SG-1, both played by the absurdly attractive Ben Browder. ^{[dead link]} You're welcome.
• Pretty much every male Gladiator in American Gladiators.

Professional Wrestling

• Due to varying fan opinions and the nature of the form of fiction, it would probably be quicker to mention wrestlers who do not fit this trope.

Web Comics

• Bill from Bill of the Beach is super buff, so strong he tore a woman's top off just by flexing, extremely well-endowed, and has so much stamina it took sex with 63 women to get him to start limping. As a teenager he also had much longer hair and took to bodybuilding very quickly.

Video Games

• Chris Redfield and Billy Coen in Resident Evil.
• Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, is considered this for a reason.
• Ike in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
• Jecht from Final Fantasy X and Dissidia is actually described as having "the body of a bronzed god," which is in stark contrast to the many, many bishies in the series.
• Little Mac was considered this when Punch-Out!!' went into 3D.
• Guy Kazama from Last Alert is a handsome soldier whose combat training left him very muscular.
• Alex of Stardew Valley is a Lovable Jock with aspirations to be a gridball player and is often seen working out and talking about his muscles. He is also one of the bachelors in the game. However, while his profile pic is quite handsome, due to the 16 bit look to the game, his muscular build is more of an Informed Attribute.
• Ludger Will Kresnik, the main protagonist of Tales of Xillia 2 looks like a typical Bishonen, but during Chapter 15, "Brothers Forever" the anime cutscene shows that he's actually pretty buff when he watches television and arm wrestles with his half-brother, Julius in a flashback.
• Riku from Kingdom Hearts likely as a result of constant training on the Destiny Isles. Also doubles as Long-Haired Pretty Boy.
• A LOT of male fighters in tournament fighters are this. If we listed every single one, we'd be here for a long time. But some of the most famous examples are:
  • Ken Masters and Ryu from the Street Fighter franchise.
  • Liu Kang and Johnny Cage from the Mortal Kombat franchise.
  • Terry and Andy Bogard from the Fatal Fury franchise.
• Because he likes to exercise, Kana from Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns is the most muscular (albeit still lean) bachelor in the game.

Western Animation

• Johnny Bravo. Despite having the looks, he repulses women because he is such a preening dumbass. Word of God says Johnny does get girls offscreen though and the cartoon only highlights his failures for laughs. It's even confirmed in "Johnny and the Amazon Women" that he is not I repeat NOT A VIRGIN.
• The aptly named He-Man from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
• Big Macintosh from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a pony version.
• Raymond, a one shot love interest for Alex from Totally Spies is a young bodybuilder.
• Some incarnations of Fred Jones from the Scooby-Doo franchise are quite muscular, most notably from What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
• From The Simpsons franchise we got:
  • Duffman, a mascot off Duff. Due to several actors portraying him, one is known to be gay while several are womanizers.
  • Rainier Wolfcastle, a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Ned Flanders is actually quite buff under that shirt and shown to be quite well-endowed. He briefly becomes a Chick Magnet after his wife Maude dies and once had sex with a movie star.
  • Chase, AKA, Pyro, is an American Gladiator that was for a time the boyfriend of Luann Van Houten after she divorced Kirk.
• Kevin Levin from Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien when he becomes a teenager.
• Raimundo Pedrosa from Xiaolin Showdown is a leaner example but his training left him with six pack abs and muscle tone in his arms by the second season.