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USA Insider Race to Survive: Alaska

Where Have You Seen 'Race to Survive: Alaska' Contestant Max Djenohan Before?

"Race to Survive: Alaska" isn't Max Djenohan's first survivalist reality rodeo.

By Tara Bennett
Race to Survive Alaska's Max Djenohan

Two episodes into "Race to Survive: Alaska," USA Network's competition reality competition series, and it's clear that two teams are dominating. At the top of the pack of the eight teams of two are Nome, Alaska natives and brothers Oliver and Wilson Hoogendorn. They made the first leg of six look beyond easy as they only took two days on the course to make it to the winner's box first. But a bit slower and steadier behind them was friend team, Max Djenohan and Christian Junkar. They proved to have great orienteering skills, stamina and an array of survival skill smarts. 

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Catch up with Race to Survive: Alaska on the USA Network app.

RELATED: Where To Watch USA Network's Intense New Series 'Race To Survive: Alaska'

In particular, Max Djenohan is proving to be quite the knowledge base for both their team, and others who have respected their Survival Camp skills finding food off the land. In the second episode, Max gives respect to his family camping and outdoors adventures where he first learned how to find clams, mussels and other mud flat foods; a very helpful expertise in Alaska already. 

But Djenohan can also boast many prior experiences combing the land as a contestant in other survival reality shows as a reason for his particular prowess as a forager. In fact, Max has survived 156 days on four different continents as a repeat participant in the "Naked and Afraid" franchise where he had to literally be naked with only two survival items to get through at least two weeks in the wild. 

For his first naked adventure in 2017, Djenohan lived through two weeks in a Panamanian jungle. He then returned to the "Naked and Afraid" series in 2018 to film in a different part of Panama, but for an extended 21-days in the wild. As both episodes reveal, Max is beyond resourceful and he's great at scouting out what's around him to exploit for food and shelter. He's since been wooed back to participate in the spin-off series, "Naked and Afraid: Alone," where he went solo out in the wild without an appointed partner in misery. 

Perhaps his best reality show preparation for "Race to Survive: Alaska" have been his appearances on "Naked and Afraid XL" where he first tackled a 40-day survival challenge and then followed up with a 60-day version of the survival challenge. In total, Djenohan has bested an impressive six "Naked and Afraid" experiences, which uniquely positions him to tackle this Alaskan adventure arguably better than anyone else across all eight teams. And for this series, he gets to wear clothes and have a backpack full of survival materials! Such luxury compared to those other shows. 

To see how Max fares with Christian, tune in on Mondays at 11 p.m. ET/PT on USA Network for new episodes of "Race to Survive: Alaska." Catch more survival shows on Peacock now.

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