With his honed physique and chiselled features, it's hard to imagine that Luke Pickett was bullied for being a swot and didn't have his first kiss until he was almost 16.

He is now having the last laugh. His combination of brains and brawn has earned him a place reading economics at Warwick University and got him through to the final of a national male model competition to be screened on Channel 4.

With his 40in chest and 28in waist, Luke was a hit with the judges of the competition, organised by Men's Health magazine.

He was the only entrant from Sussex to get through the Brighton regional heat and will be one of 15 nationwide to go to the grand final in London on August 19.

Luke, 19, from North Lane in Rustington, near Littlehampton, said: "I took a lot of stick in the first few years of senior school for being clever and hardworking.

"I was a bit of a swot. The first day I went to senior school my older brother's GCSE results were read out to everyone because he had done so well. I started to get lots of abuse because of that.

"People used to call me various things to do with computers. I was never really ugly I don't think, just a bit of a swot.

"That was one of the reasons I started weight-training because people respect you more.

"By the time I got to 16 or 17 it had calmed down a lot.

"Another thing I took a lot of stick for was girlfriends - or the lack of them. All my close friends started getting them when they were 13 but I didn't have my first girlfriend until just before I was 16.

"I didn't even kiss anyone until I was 15 but I've had a couple of girlfriends since."

If he wins the competition, Luke will be whisked away to Miami for a photo shoot before appearing on the magazine's front cover and being the face of Orbit chewing gum.

But although fame is an attractive prospect, Luke thinks he would probably earn more in the careers he has been preparing for since his schooldays - as an investment banker or stockbroker. He doesn't want his three top-grade A-levels to go to waste.

Luke said: "There's not much money in modelling unless you're a really big name.

"I would like to do stockbroking or investment banking. I've just finished a gap year working for the Defence, Science and Technology Laboratories, which are part of the Ministry of Defence.

"But I'd give modelling a go. Sometimes I can really go for it and be a complete exhibitionist.

"If I was on holiday, I would happily wander round with my top off wherever I went but in England it's different."

Of the contestants the judges inspected at last Monday's Brighton heat, Steve King, deputy editor of Men's Health, said: "I'm not sure if we have found a cover star. We saw the good, the bad and the ugly in Brighton."