The Rock is best known for his Herculean physique, both as a wrestler and an on-screen action hero.

But the 43-year-old didn’t bulk up over night, as his latest flashback snap proved on Wednesday, when his 16-year-old self – 6ft 4in and 225lbs – was revealed in all its glory.

The former WWE wrestler shared a high school picture that features a ‘dead caterpillar’ moustache and what he admits was an escalated experience of puberty.

Masculine: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson shared an hilarious insight into his 16-year-old self on Wednesday with a picture from his high school year book

He introduced the photo by saying: ‘By the time I was 16 yrs old, I had already enrolled in four high schools across the country due to being evicted and lil’ trouble with the law.’

He joked with his 23.1m followers on Instagram that the student body largely believed him to be an undercover police officer, owing to his gargantuan shape.

‘I was also 6’4 225lbs,’ he added. ‘Rockin’ a dead caterpillar on my lip (aka the porn ‘stache) and all the kids in every high school thought I was an undercover cop cause I looked like a mutated, yet handsome SOB of a man child.

Herculean: The wrestler said he was 6ft 4in and 225lbs at the age of 16 and students suspected that he was an ‘undercover cop’

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Spot the difference: The Rock, on the left, at 16 is not too similar from his 43-year-old self, here in 2012

‘One of the many reasons why I’m a grateful man for the life I have today and also grateful I straight up kicked puberty’s a** early in life.’

Dwayne has previously revealed that his diet includes seven meals a day, and has needed plenty of attention to achieve lead roles in such films as Pain & Gain and Hercules.

He was one of the biggest stars to emerge from WWF and WWE, in which he featured as a main fixture between 1996 and 2014.

Dwayne began his career as a player with the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders, having kicked a history of getting into trouble by turning to bodybuilding.

Hero: He previously admitted that he needed to reconstruct his image to appear in Hollywood movies

Back to basics: He began his career not long after becoming a wrestler, here in 2012, in 1996

When he was evicted from his home at 14 and moved between four schools, he said he’d reached ‘tipping point’.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in June, the actor said: ‘It was about, ‘What can I control with these two hands?’ The only thing I could do was train and build my body. The successful men I knew were men who built their bodies.’

He has admitted that he had to ‘deconstruct’ himself to make the move into Hollywood after establishing himself as a footballer and then a wrestler under the moniker The Rock.

‘I was told that I had to conform to a standard in Hollywood that would beget me more work, better roles,’ he added to the magazine.

‘Which meant I had to stop going to the gym, which meant I couldn’t be as big, which meant you had to distance yourself from wrestling. You essentially had to deconstruct yourself.’

He returned to his passions for building up because he said he didn’t feel ‘authentic’ and then began to gain acceptance for his action hero place in the movie world.

Movie star: Dwayne has previously revealed that his diet includes seven meals a day when he’s needed to bulk up for movie roles

Movie career: Dwayne is one of WWE and WWF’s biggest exports and has starred in huge films such as San Andreas (here in 2015)