What is Matt Damon’s IQ?
Left Harvard a semester short, shared an Oscar for the screenplay — and no IQ test is on record.
Matt Damon’s IQ is not known: no test result has ever been published, and the 160 that circulates online comes from lists that name no test. His documented record — Harvard, and a shared Academy Award for the Good Will Hunting screenplay — supports an estimate of 120–135, which is an inference, not a score.
Matt Damon’s estimated IQ
- Entered Harvard in 1988 (class of 1992) as an English student and was in his fifth year when he left in spring 1993, short of a B.A., to act in Geronimo: An American Legend.
- Turned in about forty pages of a screenplay in place of the one-act play assigned in Anthony Kubiak’s Harvard playwriting class; with Ben Affleck he finished the full script in 1994.
- Shared the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Affleck for Good Will Hunting at the 70th Academy Awards on March 23, 1998, and the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay; five Oscar nominations in all, adding Best Actor for Good Will Hunting (1998), Best Supporting Actor for Invictus (2010), Best Actor for The Martian (2016) and, as a producer, Best Picture for Manchester by the Sea (2017).
- Harvard presented him its Arts Medal on April 25, 2013, at Sanders Theatre; the university’s Gazette noted that he did not graduate.
- Co-founded H2O Africa, which merged with Gary White’s WaterPartners in July 2009 to form Water.org, and is named as a founder of WaterEquity, an asset manager that directs private investment into water and sanitation.
No IQ test result for Damon has been published. Harvard admission, a co-written Oscar-winning screenplay and a documented nonprofit record can all be checked, but they are achievements, not scores, and he left Harvard without a degree. Screenwriting success and nonprofit fundraising reward voice, timing and partnership as much as cognitive ability, so this range is an inference that could be too high or too low.
- Born
- October 8, 1970, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Education
- Harvard University, English, 1988 to spring 1993 (class of 1992); left short of a B.A.
- Known for
- Good Will Hunting, the Bourne franchise, the Ocean’s Eleven trilogy, The Martian, Oppenheimer
- Screenwriting Oscar
- Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Good Will Hunting, shared with Ben Affleck (March 23, 1998)
- Oscar record
- One win, five nominations: screenplay, Best Actor twice, Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture as a producer
- Harvard Arts Medal
- April 25, 2013, Sanders Theatre
- Philanthropy
- Co-founder of H2O Africa (merged into Water.org, July 2009) and WaterEquity, with Gary White
- Documented IQ test
- None on record — 160 circulates on lists that cite no test
What an IQ of 120–135 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Matt Damon is
Matthew Paige Damon was born on October 8, 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and grew up there, attending Rindge and Latin School alongside Ben Affleck. He entered Harvard in 1988 with the class of 1992 and studied English. In an oral history for Boston Magazine he recalls that, in his fifth year, “I had a few electives left.” According to the Harvard Gazette he left in spring 1993 for a role in Geronimo: An American Legend.
For a playwriting class taught by Anthony Kubiak, the final assignment was a one-act play. Damon handed in a document of about forty pages that began a screenplay instead, and Kubiak told Boston Magazine it was “very authentic and real.” In Los Angeles he stayed with Affleck, and the two completed the script in 1994. Good Will Hunting reached wide release in January 1998, and on March 23, 1998, they shared the Academy Award for original screenplay; Damon was also nominated for Best Actor.
Harvard gave Damon its Arts Medal on April 25, 2013, at Sanders Theatre as the Arts First festival opened; the Gazette’s announcement noted that he “did not graduate.” He later received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Invictus, March 7, 2010), Best Actor (The Martian, February 28, 2016) and, as a producer, Best Picture (Manchester by the Sea, February 26, 2017), for five nominations and one win in all.
Outside film, Damon co-founded H2O Africa, which merged with Gary White’s WaterPartners in July 2009 to form Water.org. He is also named as a founder of WaterEquity, an asset manager that directs private investment into water and sanitation. In July 2026 he played Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which opened with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed October 2026
Matt Damon: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1970Born October 8 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- 1988Enters Harvard with the class of 1992, studying English.
- 1993Leaves Harvard in spring, short of a B.A., to act in Geronimo: An American Legend; he had already turned in about forty pages of a screenplay for a playwriting class.
- 1994Finishes the full Good Will Hunting script with Ben Affleck.
- 1998Good Will Hunting reaches wide release in January; on March 23 Damon and Affleck win the Academy Award for original screenplay, and Damon is nominated for Best Actor.
- 2009H2O Africa, co-founded by Damon, merges with Gary White’s WaterPartners in July to form Water.org.
- 2010Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Invictus at the 82nd Academy Awards.
- 2013Receives the Harvard Arts Medal on April 25.
- 2016Nominated for Best Actor for The Martian at the 88th Academy Awards.
- 2017Nominated for Best Picture, as a producer of Manchester by the Sea, at the 89th Academy Awards.
- 2026In July, plays Odysseus in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which opens with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales.
Where the 160 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Matt Damon’s IQ is not known, because no test result has ever been published. The 160 that circulates online comes from pages such as check-iq.org, celebsiq.com and thegeniusindex.pages.dev, and none of them names a test, a date or a method; check-iq.org also lists a lower 143, credited to MSN at low confidence. The wider habit is covered in our explainer on where celebrity IQ numbers come from.
One list ties the number to a film role rather than a test. brainmanager.io writes that Damon “wasn’t just acting when he played a math genius in Good Will Hunting,” and separately that his IQ “has been reported at 143, with some sources even placing it closer to 160.” That credits the writer with the intelligence of Will Hunting, a fictional character. A role is not a score.
The documented record is narrower and can be checked. Damon entered Harvard in 1988 with the class of 1992, studied English, and was in his fifth year when he left in spring 1993, short of a degree, to act in Geronimo: An American Legend. The screenplay he began in a Harvard playwriting class became Good Will Hunting, and he and Ben Affleck shared the Academy Award for original screenplay on March 23, 1998.
Two other profiles here share parts of that record. Natalie Portman is the other Harvard name in this category and, unlike Damon, finished her degree. Ashton Kutcher left a university program without a diploma and built something documented elsewhere. In each case, as with Damon, the evidence is achievement, not a test score.
How we read a number →Lists Good Will Hunting as the winner for Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as the writers, and Damon among the Best Actor nominees.
Lists Damon as a nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Invictus), Best Actor (The Martian) and, as a producer, Best Picture (Manchester by the Sea).
Gives the ceremony as April 25 at Sanders Theatre, notes that Damon “did not graduate,” and credits him as a co-founder of H2O Africa, now Water.org.
Reports that Damon left Harvard in the spring of 1993 for a role in Geronimo: An American Legend and received the Arts Medal as Arts First opened.
Confirms that he did not finish his undergraduate degree and that the final assignment in Anthony Kubiak’s playwriting class was a one-act play.
Damon’s account of the playwriting assignment, the roughly forty pages he handed in, his fifth year at Harvard and his move to Los Angeles; Kubiak calls the pages “very authentic and real.”
Used for the class year, the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, the tally of one Academy Award win and five nominations, and the July 2009 merger of WaterPartners with H2O Africa. Orientation only; load-bearing facts rest on the sources above.
Describes WaterEquity as “an asset manager dedicated to directing private investment into the water and sanitation sector,” founded by Gary White and Matt Damon of Water.org.
Reports that the film stars Damon as Odysseus and launched with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales.
States that Damon “boasts an IQ of 160” and credits Harper’s Bazaar, with 160 also shown for Esquire and Bright Side and 143 for MSN at low confidence; it names no test.
celebsiq.com says “Reportedly, he has an IQ score of 160”; thegeniusindex.pages.dev gives an “estimated” 160. Neither names a source or a test.
Writes that Damon “wasn’t just acting when he played a math genius” in Good Will Hunting, treating the role as evidence, and that his IQ “has been reported at 143, with some sources even placing it closer to 160.”
No school, testing-body, clinical or media record of an administered test has been published, and Damon has not stated a number himself.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Matt Damon, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
160 is the figure that recurs on celebrity-IQ lists (check-iq.org, celebsiq.com, thegeniusindex.pages.dev); check-iq.org also lists a lower-confidence 143, credited to MSN.
We found no published IQ test result for Matt Damon. check-iq.org says he “boasts an IQ of 160” and that it used “the findings of Harper’s Bazaar”; its table also shows 160 for Esquire and Bright Side and 143 for MSN at low confidence, with no test, date or method for any of them. celebsiq.com writes “Reportedly, he has an IQ score of 160” and names no source. thegeniusindex.pages.dev calls its 160 an “estimated” figure and cites nothing. brainmanager.io writes that Damon “wasn’t just acting when he played a math genius in Good Will Hunting,” and that his IQ “has been reported at 143, with some sources even placing it closer to 160.” A role is not a score. check-iq.org also says getting into Mensa “would also be quite easy for him”; no Mensa membership or test result for Damon is documented.
The estimated range rests on documented achievement; the popular figure rests on lists that cite no test. The gap is a difference in sourcing, not a measured one.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Matt Damon — frequently asked
What is Matt Damon’s IQ?
Matt Damon’s IQ is not known, because no test result has ever been published. The 160 that circulates on celebrity lists names no test; check-iq.org, for one, credits “Harper’s Bazaar” and gives no method. This site’s estimate is 120–135, inferred from his Harvard record and an Oscar-winning screenplay, and it is an inference rather than a score.
Is Matt Damon smart?
By his record he is a highly accomplished writer and actor, but no IQ test measures how smart he is. He entered Harvard in 1988, turned a playwriting-class assignment into the Good Will Hunting screenplay and shared the Academy Award for it on March 23, 1998; he has five Oscar nominations in all. Those are achievements, not scores. For context on Harvard admission, see the average IQ of Harvard students.
Is Matt Damon a genius?
No published test result calls Matt Damon a genius. The label comes from lists such as brainmanager.io, which writes that he “wasn’t just acting when he played a math genius in Good Will Hunting” and so credits him with a character’s intelligence. His documented record is that of a successful screenwriter and actor. For how the term is usually defined, see what counts as a genius IQ level.
Is Matt Damon’s IQ really 160?
No test supports it. Pages give the figure as “estimated” (thegeniusindex.pages.dev), “reportedly” (celebsiq.com) or as a finding of “Harper’s Bazaar” (check-iq.org), and a lower 143 circulates beside it. For the limits on what a test can report, see our explainer on the highest IQ score a test can report.
Did Matt Damon graduate from Harvard?
No. He entered Harvard in 1988 with the class of 1992 and was in his fifth year when he left in spring 1993, short of an English B.A., to act in Geronimo: An American Legend. Harvard presented him its Arts Medal on April 25, 2013, and its own Gazette noted that he “did not graduate.”
Did Matt Damon really write Good Will Hunting for a Harvard class?
In part. The final assignment in Anthony Kubiak’s playwriting class was a one-act play; Damon handed in about forty pages of a screenplay instead, and Kubiak told Boston Magazine it was “very authentic and real.” He and Ben Affleck finished the script in 1994.
What awards did Matt Damon win for Good Will Hunting?
He and Ben Affleck won the Academy Award for original screenplay at the 70th Academy Awards on March 23, 1998 (the Academy listed the category as Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen), and the Golden Globe for best screenplay. Damon was also nominated for Best Actor for the film. Across his career he has five Oscar nominations and that one win.
Is Matt Damon’s IQ higher than Ben Affleck’s?
Damon has no published test result, so no comparison can rest on a score. What the two share is one documented credit: they co-wrote Good Will Hunting and shared the 1998 Academy Award for its screenplay. Affleck’s own figure and sources are on his profile, Ben Affleck.
How does my IQ compare with Matt Damon?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other actors profiles, starting with Natalie Portman.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More actors profiles — same field, same method
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