Austin, pictured here in 2020, largely lives his life out of the spotlight.
After Wizards of Waverly Place, he took a role as Jesus Foster in The Fosters, but left the show in 2015 after two seasons as the main character.
"I just wanted to do roles with more substantive content," he told a fan of his abrupt departure on X (formerly Twitter) at the time.
"I was only asked to return for three episodes [in Season 3] and wasn't going to be able to work on anything else, so I left."
Australian actress Maia Mitchell, who was his co-star, however, seemed to sing a... slightly different tune.
"[Jake] wasn't the right fit. He wasn't interested in doing the show anymore, so he left," she told Young Entertainment.
Rumours of behind-the-scenes bad behaviour, however, followed Austin from his time on The Fosters, with a DUI charge in October 2013 and separate car crash a month later seeing his lawyer negotiate a plea deal with 24 months of probation.
"I kind of lost sight of who I was as a person," he told Flaunt in 2019.
He said his character being recast on The Fosters "was probably the best thing that could have happened to me" as "it prevented me from getting too big for my britches and really prevented my behaviour from getting worse."
Since then, he's kept a low profile, doing voice work mainly.
Max's absence in Wizards Beyond Waverly Place – the new spinoff show – is not explained, though he's alluded to as a "billionaire" sandwich shop franchise owner.
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