Edina Native Making 'Survivor' Debut

Samoa is a far cry from 50th & France, but Edina native Keith Tollefson is hoping to outwit, outplay and outlast 17 other competitors as part of the latest season of Survivor.

The 26-year-old is competing for a shot at a $1 million prize as part of Survivor: South Pacific, which premieres on CBS at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14.

Growing up in Minnesota, Tollefson was no stranger to the outdoors. His father regularly took him hunting and camping, fostering a deep love for the wilderness.

"A lot of my friends from Minnesota could do pretty well (on the show)," he said. "We basically grew up doing all of that stuff, going up to the boundary waters and things like that."

Tollefson graduated from in 2003 and attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The surfing aficionado moved to Hawaii for a few years to fulfill a dream and then moved to San Diego. Even his work puts him near water—he's a water treatment technician.

Much of his family still lives in Edina.

Tollefson has defied expectations his entire life, having been born with a congenital heart block and getting a pacemaker installed when he was only 7 years old. He's now on his third pacemaker—battery life is right around 10 years—but said it hasn't really held him back from leading a normal life.

"The only drawback was that I couldn't play any contact sports, which meant no hockey," he explained. "But I was still able to play baseball and basketball."

Tollefson said it was nerve-wracking waiting to hear if he was going to make it onto the show, but also thought he could be a "polarizing character," given his background. 

"Everywhere I've lived, I made very close friends," he said. "I knew I could go into the game and make friends easily. Hopefully I could be someone people would be interested in watching."

In terms of preparing for the trip to Samoa, Tollefson said he just kept "doing what I was already doing"—a lot of running and training a bit with P90X—but said the hardest decision was whether to gain or lose weight before the show.

"It could be beneficial to gain some weight but, at the same time, you want to look good on camera," he said. "I felt like just going in with the current weight I had was the best option."

Knowing he would be competing with two Survivor veterans—Coach and Ozzy—Tollefson said he felt like it was best to take on more of a secondary role behind them, acting as a "supporting leader."

"I went in knowing I wanted to help the tribe out physically in challenges, but at the same time help with any emotional issues and play a really good social game," he said.

Tollefson joked he was glad to have survived the experience and, while he can't yet talk about what happened during filming, his main takeaway was how hard it actually was.

"I know when I was watching the show on TV, you look at it and think anyone can go out and do that," He said. "Even if you're the toughest woodsmen ever, it's extremely difficult."