But, mixing it physically with rugby union players? That was a frightening prospect for Damon.
When the Oscar winner had to shoot physical scenes with muscle-bulging rugby players in the new Clint Eastwood-directed film, Invictus, he was cautious about getting hurt.
"If it looked like I could get injured, I'd let my stunt double do it," Damon, 39, admitted during an interview in Los Angeles. "I'm not proud in that way."
Invictus is set around the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa and Damon plays Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, while Morgan Freeman is South African President Nelson Mandela.
The film captures the watershed moment in South African history when the Springboks' 15-12 victory in extra time over favourites New Zealand in the World Cup final united the nation after years of apartheid.
While American A-Listers Damon, Freeman and Eastwood were all intimately aware of Mandela's 27 year imprisonment and rise to presidency, the importance of the World Cup was news to them.
Rugby was also largely foreign to the trio.
"I'd seen matches sporadically when I was in England or Australia and my roommates in college all played at the club level, but this (making Invictus) was a whole different experience," Damon said.
Eastwood, a fanatical golfer, had not watched a game of rugby until he flew to South Africa to prepare to shoot Invictus.
"In fact, the first night I was there I was getting off the plane and I was tired, but I was told there was a rugby game on," Eastwood recalls.
"I thought it was something I could have postponed, but then I thought 'OK, I'll go'.
"It was very, very exciting."
To help with the intricacies of the game, the only black player in the victorious 1995 Springboks, Chester Williams, and his wife sat next to Eastwood.
Eastwood, a fan of gridiron, was impressed by how rugby players stay on the field for the entire game.
"They were explaining what was happening so I got a great overview of how it goes," Eastwood, 79, says.
"It's a very fast game and they don't have an offensive team and a defensive team. You play the whole game. It's tough."
Freeman, 72, recalls watching a couple of games while travelling in Europe and Africa. What impresses him about the sport is how rugby players score tries.
"When they score a try they don't ever just want to cross that line, they want to take a bone-crushing dive," Freeman says.
Invictus is based on the John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation.
The one-time foreign sport of rugby may be a lucky charm for Damon, Eastwood and Freeman.
The three are all likely to be nominated for Oscars next month for Invictus when the Academy releases its nominees.
