Actor Sam Trammell feared he would be dropped from the cast of hit vampire series True Blood after breaking his nose in a surfing accident weeks before he was due to film the pilot episode.

The star, 45, landed the role of Sam Merlotte on the show in early 2008, but he thought he had blown his chance at his big break after his good looks took a knock while he was catching some waves.

He recalls, "It was about two months before we were gonna shoot the pilot and I went surfing... the day after St. Patrick's Day, so I was a little bit tired, a little hungover. So I fell and the surfboard hit me directly in my nose, broke it... and it was a disaster... I got out of the water and was all bloody...

"I went to a clinic and the doctor... sewed me up and everything was fine, but I was really worried that I would never have a career."

Luckily, things worked out well for Trammell and he recently wrapped filming on True Blood's current seventh and final season.

He also featured in hit drama The Fault in Our Stars, as Shailene Woodley's onscreen father.