The Real-Life Diet of Lil Dicky, Who Is Careful to Avoid Salt Bloat on Set

Lil Dicky’s real name is Dave Burd, and you might recognize him from his eponymous show on FX. He first shot to stardom by creating ridiculous, hilarious rap videos and posting them on YouTube, where he now has more than 8.2 million subscribers. He’s rapped about everything from saving money to how he’d love to be Mr. Rachel McAdams—and then the actress actually showed up for the music video.

And if one of the last things you ever expected to see in Times Square was a giant sand pit from the show Squid Game, picturing Lil Dicky in said sandpit running for his life might be the component that pushes your imagination over the edge. That was the exact situation transpiring earlier this fall when the actor partnered with whisky brand Johnnie Walker to launch their Black Label ‘Squid Game’ edition.

Below, he spoke to us about lower back pain, oatmeal, and going for a swim first thing in the morning.

Well, to say I cook a lot would be a gross overstatement, but when I do cook, I certainly make it count. If I do cook, the thing that I probably do the most right now is grilling. I just moved and I have a new grill, and there's all this space on the grill to marinate chicken breasts in a variety of different sauces.

I have like four different sauces in my fridge, and I'll marinate them for like—I don't spend too much time marinating them, maybe about 45 minutes—I'm not one that feels like you have to marinate it a whole day in advance. I don't do that level of prepping, but then I get it on the grill and I cook it. I got a meat thermometer. I can tell when it's cooked and when it's not. I'll throw a slice of cheese on it and put it on a sesame seed bun and put the bun on the grill and toast the bun. So that's kind of how I live my life.

Well, yeah I mean, there's such a dramatic difference. Because I'm in like pretty much all the scenes, I have to get called early to go through hair and makeup and wardrobe. It sucks, I get picked up at like, 4 a.m. and that's unbelievable. Like, I wake up and I feel a sense of disbelief.

I don't eat a thing. I get in the car and I don't really speak to anybody. We shoot at all different locations depending on what the scene may be. So, once I get out of the car and there’s maybe the faintest amount of light peeking through at the earth, then I start to perk up a little bit. I'll, you know, talk to the onset PAs.

They typically know what I have, and they’ll have a bowl of oatmeal ready to go for me with some sparkling water. Then I go through hair and makeup and all this to say is that I eat oatmeal right away, and then I don't eat for like, another, I don't know, six hours.

So my eating patterns really just depend on the day. When I'm shooting Dave the patterns are really unfortunate. Like, the day can start too early and can end too late, and I really just kind of eat when I get a moment, which is very infrequently now.

When I'm not making Dave, it’s totally different. I really wake up and ease into the day. I think my alarm honestly might not even be getting set, and I might wake up naturally around 8:30 a.m., at which point I'll immediately get into the pool and loosen up my body physically. Actually, before I get into the pool, I will eat one little—it's called a Heavenly Hunk—it's like a little granola square. I don't know who makes it, but man, I love it. And I eat that heavenly hunk, then I go swimming where I don't even swim. I just kind of move slowly about the pool, loosening up my body. Then I'll get out and I'll stretch. I have a bad back all of a sudden, so I stretch for like 45 minutes a day and then I'll proceed.

I am doing coffee or caffeine pretty much immediately. Like, right when I wake up. If I’m home I'll bring a cup to the pool, it'll be sitting poolside. Or, when I head to set at like 5 a.m. they are holding a coffee for me immediately.

I'm the furthest thing. My body's breaking down, and I don't even deserve to be in GQ.

I should be doing more than stretching. Honestly, here's what happened: I was editing, and my edit schedule was so strenuous, and I sat for so long. Then I think my body deteriorated from sitting for like 10 weeks straight and editing so hard and my muscles are just weaker now. Now I just have kind of constant back pain.

So for the past year, I've just been trying to loosen up my body and stretch and do these really light exercises that are designed to, you know, improve core strength. But by no means am I like, you know, the Sexiest Man of the Year trying to create a body for the cover. I'm actually just trying to go through a day without feeling dull back pain.

I'm not ruling that out at all. I feel optimistic. I feel like it's now or never for me, and I'm going to dedicate the next three years to getting the type of body that would earn that cover. But I think, you know, the first thing I gotta do is just rebuild my lower back strength.

If I'm shooting, one beautiful thing about it that I just love is that they’ll be like oh, today is this day, and they have these two different food options. If I don't like the options, you know what, someone will go out to a local restaurant nearby, and they'll pick me up whatever. Honestly, one thing I try to do when I'm shooting, believe it or not, is try to eat foods that avoid sodium due to facial bloating. But pretty much everything I like is jam packed with sodium. So sometimes, sometimes I'm just like, fuck it. Like, let the face bloat.

It's a piece of advice I got, but maybe my face actually doesn't have a ton of bloating variability and someone just said this to me. You know, I haven't ever acted really prior to my own show, so I don't know the tricks of the trade, and I guess maybe I'm easily influenced.

I just know that nobody eats more chicken fingers than me. Nobody eats more ketchup than me. So I try, but I don't know. Maybe this is not even this. Does Caesar salad have a lot of sodium in it? I don't know if it does, but people are nodding—like people are listening to me and nodding and saying yes, it does. So I don't think I'm doing a good job at all. Maybe my face that you see is always one that's a little bloated, and that's OK.

For dinner, it all depends if it's like the hardest day, which can happen all the time. I really will just be like fuck it, and I'll get so much fast food or something on the way home and just have a quote-unquote cheat day.

I love Taco Bell. I love the cheesy gordita crunch with chicken and no lettuce. I'll get two of those and a chicken quesadilla.

If I'm trying to be healthy, I love tuna fish. Like, if I was trying to be healthy, I would just open up a can of tuna and put mayo in it—really just mayo—and just mush it around until it's the texture of my choosing and eat it just out of the bowl.

That's me trying to be healthy, but my diet is horrible. Like, I don't eat any fruits or vegetables. I'm shocked if I don't have scurvy.

My favorite is this Johnnie Walker cocktail that was actually introduced to me today. It's called The 456, I don't exactly know what’s in it. I'm sipping one as I talk to you. It's yellow and it's very good.

I'm a Johnnie Walker fan just going through my day-to-day life, and then I'm also, like most people, just a fan of Squid Game. I was just gripped by season one. So when I heard that there was an opportunity to work with them I thought, you know, I only like doing brand deals with brands I believe in and so it was an easy one, an easy collab. We just did a cool thing in Times Square, where we played the red light, green light game. Ultimately, I did come out the winner, which should come as no surprise to the reader. I gave it my all, and I won.

My biggest takeaway from Squid Games and the thing that I like the most is honestly the theme song. I think that theme song is so, so memorable. I remember hearing it and being like, this show is great, and I also love the wardrobe.

But my favorite game? I have a vague memory of a cookie and like people licking a cookie, and I thought that was weird and interesting. I'd be great at the cookie-licking thing.

Yeah, I just want to say I'm coming for that cover. I'm coming for it when the time is right and the body is trim and the product will be jumping off the shelves. I'll see you on the cover, OK, GQ?