Andrew McLaren is a decorated Iraq War veteran and fast becoming an "it" boy in Hollywood, having been hand-picked over hundreds of thousands of contenders to star as an expert operative in NBC's forthcoming "Stars Earn Stripes" competition series alongside the likes of Todd Palin, Dean Cain and Nick Lachey.

But given that "reality television" has become something of a dirty word in recent times, this devoted military man did take some convincing.

"When they said it was a reality show, I thought 'I don't want to do a reality show' but they said it was for charity for law enforcement and military. It wasn't your typical reality show," McLaren told FOX411's Pop Tarts column. "I was excited because we had weapons that I didn't get to use when I was in the marines. The military puts a lot of money into us, so they don't want us doing ridiculous things where we could be hurt. On the show we do some crazy things and people are going to be shocked when they watch the show."