Background
He grew up in Mangere and Papatoetoe.
He grew up in Mangere and Papatoetoe.
He was educated at Calvin Christian School, Street Peter"s College and King"s College.
He was a prominent junior rugby player in Auckland Rugby. He was selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools (2003/2004), New Zealand Under 17’s (2002) as well as many Regional representative teams. He played club rugby for the Ponsonby Rugby Football Union club in central Auckland.
He stopped playing Rugby after a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament. Afoa studied social sciences at Auckland University where he gained his Bachelor of Arts before helping to deliver a programme to South Auckland teens who had been affected by drugs and alcohol, using music as a therapeutic tool.
As a singer, Afoa was a soloist for the Rugby World Cup Choir who performed the National Anthems (for their respective countries) at the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia. In Auckland he performed at Sky City Symphony Under the Stars (2004), Christmas in the Park(2003) and has been the National Anthem singer for other international rugby sides.
In 2013 he was cast (for a season due to last into 2015) as Simba in a Sydney musical production of Disney"s The Lion King, a role he last auditioned in 2004.
He was also contracted to the Auckland Rugby Football Union as a member of their High Performance Unit.