Braden Peters, the controversial online influencer known as “Clavicular,” was arrested Thursday in Fort Lauderdale on a battery charge, according to jail records. Peters, 20, is being held with a $1,000 bail and an expected release date of April 10. The charge is pending trial.
A source close to Peters told USA TODAY that the bail was being paid and that the arrest stemmed from an incident that happened over a month ago. The source alleged that Peters was not directly involved, but that it was a fight between his girlfriend, Violet, and a fellow influencer, Jenny Popach, whom she accused of having an affair with Clavicular. The incident was caught on camera, according to the source.
Peters, who got his nickname from the prominence of his clavicle bone, is known for driving the “looksmaxxing” movement online. The term refers to the process of maximizing one’s physical appearance through hygiene, fitness and style − sometimes to a dangerous degree. Peters is known for such extreme tactics as hitting himself in the face with a hammer so his bones grow back sharper and taking small amounts of methamphetamine to suppress his appetite.
Born December 17, 2005, Peters was raised in Hoboken, New Jersey, and attended Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. He began attending Sacred Heart University in fall 2024 but was expelled several weeks later for hiding testosterone in his dorm room three weeks after matriculating. According to Peters, he began injecting himself with testosterone supplements at age 14 during the COVID-19 pandemic and described this period as being “online for 14 hours a day.”
Peters became popular online by 2025 for his content focused on looksmaxxing on both Kick and TikTok, where he has 257.3 thousand and 809.7 thousand followers respectively. By late 2025, he began selling access to a self-improvement and looksmaxxing course called the “Clavicular System,” later called “Clavicular’s Clan,” for $50 per month. According to Joseph Bernstein of The New York Times, by February 2026, he was earning more than $100,000 a month from his Kick live streams.
On his website, he offers loyal disciples a chance to learn directly from him and “ascend,” in-world lingo for becoming more physically attractive. He has denied accusations of racism, or of claiming any particular worldview, telling the New York Times in February of his chronic use of a racist slur: “It’s not a racist thing. It’s just a fun word to say.” Peters has appeared online alongside Nick Fuentes, an influential white nationalist and Holocaust denier.
This is not Peters’ first arrest. He was detained in Scottsdale, Arizona, earlier this year and charged with two felonies, possession of a forged instrument and possession/use of a dangerous drug. His charges stemmed from a fake ID, which he used to get into a club, and an Adderall pill and oral steroid found on his person at the time of the search. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute.
“I want this to be an iconic mug shot that can be sold on T-shirts in malls,” Peters’ publicist, Mitchell Jackson, told the New York Times at the time. Peters gained wider attention in December 2025 when a livestream clip of him hitting a man with a Tesla Cybertruck went viral online. As of 2026, he lives in Florida, where his current legal proceedings will continue with the pending battery charge trial.