Looksmaxxer and influencer Connor Murphy was said to be injecting gold into his bloodstream as an extreme looksmaxxing method.

Friends of famous looksmaxxer Connor Murphy claim the influencer was injecting liquid gold into his veins before he died earlier this week.

On July 7, he drowned in a lake in the Samut Prakan province in Thailand after being chased by police, who received reports of a man behaving erratically in public.

Looksmaxxing is a controversial online subculture that encourages people, particularly young men, to improve their appearance at any cost.

The trend has been criticised for promoting dangerous health practices, including “bone smashing”, which uses hammers to create micro-fractures on facial bones to make the face appear more angular.

TMZ interviewed Murphy’s close friend and former roommate Tony Huge, who believed the gold he was injecting could have induced a form of psychosis.

He said while he saw some benefits to Murphy’s unconventional use of gold, he warned Murphy about the practice because it could have unknown consequences.

Gold can be injected as a medical treatment for some types of arthritis but it can cause gold toxicity.

Symptoms of gold toxicity include gastrointestinal bleeding, headaches, dermatitis, vomiting and inflamed lung tissue.

Huge said Murphy thought gold would enhance the colour of his skin and give him “superhuman” traits.

He remembered Murphy seemed more bold, courageous and energetic following the usage.

Huge believed the gold altered Murphy’s mindset and led him to pursue extreme measures for his looksmaxxing goals and social media content creation.

He thought this altered state may have eventually led to his friend’s death.

Another well-known looksmaxxer and close friend of Murphy’s, known online as Androgenic, also spoke out about Murphy’s gold “fixation”.

In a video posted to social media, the influencer said Murphy believed gold was “some gatekept mineral by the higher-ups that basically gives you special powers if you ingest it”.

He said Murphy referenced an unnamed study done on five people that showed ingesting gold could increase a person’s average IQ level by 15 points.

Androgenic did not believe that was possible.

Once he began injecting gold into himself, Androgenic said Murphy’s friends described him as “descending into complete madness”, with discoloured skin.

The day he died, Androgenic said he was “covered in his own blood” and was “running around the neighbourhood screaming” before police “chased him down”, at which point he entered the lake and eventually drowned.

Popular looksmaxxing influencer, Clavicular, has been criticised for promoting the dangerous trend called "bone smashing", in which people hit their faces with a hammer to make them appear sharper.

The Washington Post reported that, according to Thai media outlets, Murphy behaved erratically in the hours before his death.

Thai authorities have not yet announced a cause of death beyond drowning, and full autopsy and toxicology results remain pending, the outlet confirmed.

Androgenic said he missed his friend “deeply” and hoped he was “living in some blissful afterlife”.

Murphy was producing a documentary about looksmaxxing and biohacking before he died.

Biohacking is the practice of trying to optimise physical and mental performance through common methods that are scientifically proven, like exercising and eating well, to more extreme methods that verge on pseudoscience.

Huge said Murphy also voiced interest in becoming a spiritual leader.

Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.

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Looksmaxxer Connor Murphy’s friends claims he was injecting liquid gold before he died