Sam Sheridan joined the U.S. Merchant Marines after high school and then attended Harvard College, graduating in 1998. He is an amateur boxer, MMA fighter, and a student of Muay Thai and Jiujitsu. Sheridan has worked in construction at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, as a cowboy and farmhand on the largest ranch in Montana, a Wildland Firefighter in Washington State and New Mexico, a professional sailor, and a Wilderness EMT. He has written for Newsweek and Men's Journal, and is the author of two books, A Fighter’s Heart: One Man’s Journey through the World of Fighting and The Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game.