Arnold Schwarzenegger Claims He Was Chased by Wild Dogs and Had to Bite a 'Real, Dead Vulture' on the Set of 'Conan the Barbarian'

Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for his many roles as a Hollywood action hero — but those parts didn't always come easy!

The Terminator star revealed in his new self-help book that he was forced to do a lot of "terrible s---" by director John Milius while filming the 1982 classic Conan the Barbarian.

"I learned to ride horses and camels and elephants. I learned how to jump from large rocks, how to climb and swing from long ropes, how to fall from a height," Schwarzenegger penned in Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life which hit shelves on Tuesday, October 10. "I basically went to another vocational school, this one for aspiring action heroes."

"Then on top of that, Milius had me doing all kinds of terrible s---. I crawled through rocks, take after take, until my forearms bled," he detailed in an excerpt. "I ran from wild dogs that managed to catch me and pull me into a thorn bush."

Perhaps even worse than tackling the numerous challenging and painful athletic feats for the action flick, Schwarzenegger claimed he also had to bite into a dead animal over several takes.

"I bit a real, dead vulture that required I wash my mouth out with alcohol after each take," he continued, noting that "PETA would have a field day with that one." He also revealed that on one of the first days of filming, he "tore a gash on my back that required forty stitches."

Released on Tuesday, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life details Schwarzeneggar's list of rules to follow "to realize your true purpose in life."

"If there is one unavoidable truth in this world, it's that there is no substitute for putting in the work," a quote on the back of the book read. "There is no shortcut or growth hack or magic pill that can get you around the hard work of doing your job well, of winning something you care about, or of making your dreams come true."

"People have tried to cut corners and skip steps in this process for as long as hard work has been hard," the quote continued. "Eventually, those people either fall behind or get left in our dust, because working your a-- off is the only thing that works 100 percent of the time for 100 percent of the things worth achieving."

Never miss a story — sign up for the OK! newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what OK! has to offer. It’s gossip too good to wait for!

Insider reported the excerpts of Schwarzenegger's book regarding his time filming Conan the Barbarian.