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Jason Momoa rang in his birthday with some major career milestones.
The Aquaman star celebrated turning 46 on Friday, Aug. 1, on the Dune: Part Three set. His birthday also marked the premiere of his new Apple TV+ series Chief of War.
“On my birthday, Chief of War comes out. This is my first day I’m doing Dune,” Momoa told PEOPLE during a recent press day for his new series. “I’m not going to lie to you — July has been like bang, bang, bang, bang. The comedown is going to be brutal.”
Another standout moment from July for Momoa was getting to host Black Sabbath’s farewell show. (PEOPLE spoke with Momoa prior to lead singer Ozzy Osbourne’s death on July 22.)
Hosting the concert in England was “another 13-year-old Jason moment, going like, ‘Wow,'” Momoa said. “Getting to hang out with all my music rock gods and different friends was just pinch-me.”
As for getting to walk the premiere red carpet for Chief of War in his native Hawaii on July 18, Momoa said it was “beyond pinch me — it’s punch me in the face!”
“I don’t think there’s anything bigger that I’ve ever experienced,” he said.
With Chief of War, Momoa tells the epic history of the Hawaiian islands at the turn of the 18th century.
“I feel like this whole thing has chosen me in a way, like this is my destiny,” he said. “I have no idea how I got to all this, but we’re here, and I’m very grateful. I’m living my dream doing what I love to do. To play my ancestors is such a responsibility. It’s scary and exciting.”
Apple TV+
Momoa said he and his co-creator Thomas Pa’a Sibbett made Chief of War “for young Jason and young Pa’a.”
“When I’d think of The Last of the Mohicans or Dances With Wolves, those are things that you identify with being Native,” he said. “I’d always go, ‘Wow, that’d be cool one day to have something like that.’ We all grew up with these stories, but it was a matter of needing to wait until our careers got to a point where we could have a little more control.”
Ahead of his first day on set of Dune, Momoa shaved his beard for the first time in six years.
In an Instagram video posted on July 30, Momoa took an electric shaver to his beard while delivering a message about eliminating single-use plastic.
“Haven’t shaved in six years, and here we are again,” he wrote in the caption.
Momoa’s son Nakoa-Wolf, 16, will join his dad on the Dune: Part Three set.
Momoa, who shares Nakoa-Wolf and daughter Lola, 18, with ex-wife Lisa Bonet, 57, told Extra his son obtained his role “all on his own.”
“A rude awakening is what he’s in for,” Momoa joked of his son’s budding acting career. “He’s into the workforce for the first time. It’s going to be good. He did it on his own. I don’t want to help him, and he’s done it all on his own, and good for him.”
The only thing that could top the past month for Momoa is Chief of War getting picked up for a second season.
“The good news is it picks up exactly where we left off,” he told PEOPLE. “We want it to just continue right through when you watch. So, we just got to have people watch it and support it and hopefully we can go make more.”
Chief of War premiered with two episodes on Aug. 1 . New episodes debuting weekly on Fridays on Apple TV+.
