I’m A Celeb star Nick Cummins on his shock exit, weight loss and brutal snake bite

He was only in the jungle for 14 days, but Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins has revealed I’m A Celeb took a massive toll on his body.

Nick “Honey Badger” Cummins became the fourth contestant to be voted out of I’m A Celeb during Thursday’s episode, a surprise result for the former rugby player who’d firmed up as an audience favourite.

Speaking to news.com.au the morning after his eviction, Cummins called his surprise eviction “sad but good”.

“Mate, first thing I did when I got out was strap the feed bag on, and got about a kilo of shepherd’s pie in,” he told us down the line from South Africa.

“Then had a couple of beers, and now things are good.”

A stacked Honey Badger before the show started …

… and 8kg lighter after he was evicted.

Cummins revealed he’d lost a staggering 8kg during his 14-odd days living on camp rations, and said the rudimentary gym at camp hadn’t been much help in keeping up his fitness.

“If I don’t do weights, I lose weight really quick. The jungle weights aren’t that heavy – and besides, it’s more about survival in there with the calorie intake. You don’t want to be exerting too much in the gym there.”

Contestants live on small, basic meals like rice, beans and oats, and sometimes go hungry if they haven’t been successful in a challenge. The hunger makes you “more flat”, according to Cummins.

“Your wellbeing really drops. If you’re used to taking in a lot of calories, and you’re geared a certain way, it’s tough.

Who knew Honey Badgers could swim?

“You can actually feel it during the day, eating your muscles and eating your body. It’s not nice.”

The previous evicted campmate, former Australian Idol judge Ian “Dicko” Dickson, lost 6.5kg during his 21 days in the jungle. He told news.com.au on Thursday that lack of food was even making contestants dizzy, and had forced boxing champ Harry Garside to pause his daily Olympic training program.

The Honey Badger gets bit.

A ‘beautiful moment,’ apparently.

Meanwhile, Cummins was at the centre of this season’s most gruesome moment so far when he suffered a bite from an angry python during one of his earliest challenges. The large snake wrapped itself around his arm and drew blood – but Cummins kept his cool.

“When it bites down and wraps, if you rip your hand out of there, two things can happen: You can hurt the snake, or it might fully rip up your hand. Its teeth all point backwards, so if you’re going to pull it off, you’re going to pull off a lot of skin with it,” Cummins said.

And more than a week on, Cummins said he looked back on his very close encounter fondly, giving the most Honey Badger of snake bite sound bites.

“I would’ve been jealous if I hadn’t got that task. It’s all about how you look at life, mate. That was such a beautiful moment – my first snake bite.”

I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! continues 7.30pm Sunday on Ten