Actor and stuntman Tony Jaa is Thailand’s answer to Jackie Chan, and his first star vehicle, “Ong-Bak,” puts Mr. Chan’s output of the last 10 years to shame – not to mention making you feel like you should spend more time at the gym.

Already Mr. Jaa is being hailed as the next big action star – which may seem a bit premature for an actor with only one film under his belt. But then you see what Tony Jaa can do and you realize that there isn’t anyone else like him on the planet.

Thais are extremely proud of the insane ferocity of their national martial art, Muay Thai. Mr. Jaa had studied Muay Thai for 10 years, but for “Ong-Bak” he spent four years traveling Thailand to learn a more graceful and photogenic form, Muay Boran.

In doing so, he learned dozens of flamboyant moves that had fallen into disuse. It was this intensely Thai art that he, stunt coordinator Phanna Rithikrai, and director Prachya Pinkaew became devoted to bringing to the screen.

Tony Jaa has had a strange journey to stardom. “Dodging bombs was part of my early training,” he explained earlier this week. Born in 1976, his real name is Panom Yeerum, and directly over the border from his home province, Sarin, lies Cambodia. The occasional mortar shell would sometimes land nearby.

Mr. Jaa’s parents were farmers, and he speaks proudly of their two elephants, something the region is famous for. As a young boy, he was obsessed with the films of Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Bruce Lee. He would travel anywhere to see their movies, biking miles for a glimpse of his heroes.

“Then I would come home and practice what I saw with my elephants – jumping off their backs and playing with them,” he said. When he was 15, Mr. Jaa saw a film by Mr. Rithikrai, one of Thailand’s only action stars. It was called “Born to Fight” and he was entranced. He wanted to work with him.

“I asked my father to take me to see Phanna, but he was wary about it,” he said. “I told him I would kill myself if he didn’t take me, so finally he agreed. He and Phanna talked and decided that I should finish high school, but I could study with Phanna during the summers.”

Every summer, Mr. Jaa became a gopher: cooking and fetching water for film crews. Eventually he became an extra, then he became a stuntman, making 50 baht (around $2) a day. When “Mortal Kombat 2: Annihilation” came to shoot in Thailand, he was Robin Shou’s stunt double.

Being a stuntman was as far as Mr. Jaa could likely have expected to go. Darker-skinned Thais from the northeast rarely become stars in Thailand, and the Thai film industry was in a deep financial recession, with costly action movies considered out of the question. But Mr. Rithikrai and Mr. Jaa had begun to envision “Ong-Bak,” and they were not to be deterred.

“We had a dream to do this, my heart was in it and Phanna’s heart was in it and we both went into it together,” Mr. Jaa said.

For a year, Mr. Jaa saved money from his stunt work and Mr. Rithikrai saved money from directing. They spent three months shooting a short version of the film. When they got it back from the lab, their hearts fell: The entire movie had been overexposed. Borrowing money from Mr. Jaa’s sister, they started again. Finally, they had a demo reel to show to director Prachya Pinkaew, who was stunned.

The three have already reunited to shoot a sequel to “Ong-Bak,” called “Tom Yum Goong,” and a remake of “Born to Fight.” And Mr. Jaa has used his money from “Ong-Bak” to build a house for his parents. “When my parents saw this movie,” Mr. Jaa said, “they were crying because they had seen me training and playing with our elephants as a kid. They never thought I’d come this far.”