A martial arts expert who faced Chuck Norris on screen and spent decades working with or training the biggest names in film died after injecting peptides that regulators in Australia had never approved.
Victorian coroner David Ryan found that Australian actor, stuntman and fight coordinator Richard Norton died after injecting an excess dose of unapproved peptides prescribed by his doctor, in findings handed down Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, at the Coroners Court of Victoria.
Norton, 75, died at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne on March 30, 2025, less than two weeks after he started a course of prescribed injections. Ryan traced the sequence from the injection to an anaphylactic reaction to cardiac arrest. The case is believed to be the first death in Australia linked to unapproved peptide use.
“I am satisfied that Richard’s death was triggered by his injection of the peptide CJC1295/Ipamorelin,” Ryan wrote in his finding.
A Doubled Dose and a Broken Vial
Norton approached Dr. Jerzy Muchnicki in March 2025 with an interest in peptide therapy, citing fatigue, shoulder pain and loss of muscle. He was recovering from a bilateral shoulder reconstruction.
Their conversation covered what the treatment involved, its experimental nature, the potential risks and the absence of any option approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Norton told the doctor that another practitioner had prescribed peptides to him earlier and that they had worked. Blood tests established a baseline of his health and checked for contraindications, and Norton signed an informed consent form covering the treatment, its benefits and its risks, anaphylaxis among them.
Muchnicki prescribed CJC-1295 and ipamorelin on March 19, 2025. The therapy was working, Norton told his care team a week later.
On March 28, 2025, Norton told a nurse he was injecting twice his prescribed dose. The nurse instructed him to return to the prescribed amount starting the next week. On the same occasion, Norton asked for a replacement vial and said the original had broken. He was given the replacement plus two additional peptides.
That evening, after another dose, Norton felt hot and flushed, then collapsed and became unresponsive. His wife, Judy Green, witnessed the collapse, called for help and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Two days later, after going into cardiac arrest, he died in the hospital. Photographs taken days before his death show him looking fit and healthy.
Why Ryan Wants Peptides Reclassified
The therapeutic benefits and safety risks of peptides such as CJC-1295 and ipamorelin should go before the TGA for review, Ryan recommended, and the regulator should weigh further restrictions. He suggested moving the drugs out of schedule 4, which covers prescription-only medicines, and into schedule 10, a listing that would confine them to clinical trials and other experimental settings. Doctors should not be able to prescribe the peptides at all, the coroner wrote.
Norton had CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, BPC157 and Thymosin B4/TB-500 in his possession. None of those products appear in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, which requires a listing before health-related products are made, supplied or exported in Australia. A product absent from the register is unapproved and has not been evaluated for quality, safety or efficacy.
Emergency departments at hospitals in New South Wales logged 1,180 visits tied to unapproved peptide injections between July 2025 and September 2026, according to NSW Health.
The Board Ordered Records Training
The Medical Board of Australia investigated Muchnicki and engaged an independent expert, who found insufficient evidence that either peptide is safe, effective or beneficial for human use. That expert also rated the doctor’s clinical notes as falling well short of the expected standard. The board took no regulatory action and instead ordered him to undergo one-on-one training in keeping and managing clinical records.
Muchnicki acknowledged the criticism, accepted responsibility and voiced regret over what Norton and his family went through. He committed to not prescribing peptides unless robust clinical evidence supports it.
From “The Octagon” to “Fury Road”
Norton appeared in dozens of films, among them “The Octagon,” “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Suicide Squad.” The performers he worked with or trained included Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Liam Neeson and Tom Hardy.
He also taught martial arts and worked as a bodyguard for music figures including David Bowie.