Briefs are a type of short, tight underwear and swimwear, as opposed to styles where the material extends down the legs.

A main difference between male briefs and female briefs is that male briefs are often designed with a seam or much larger pouch in the crotch area to accommodate a bulge. This is because men and boys have larger external genitals in comparison to women or girls, thus require more fabric in the crotch area.

See swim briefs for the case of briefs as swimwear.

Briefs were first sold on January 19, 1935 by Coopers, Inc., in Chicago, Illinois. They dubbed the new undergarment the "Jockey" because it offered a similar degree of support as the jockstrap (one style of which is also called Jock brief or Support briefs). Thirty-thousand pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. In North America, "Jockey shorts" or "Jockeys" is often used as a generic term for men's briefs.

In the UK, briefs were first sold in 1938. Soon, shops were selling 3,000 briefs per week. They were so popular that in 1948, every member of the British Olympic team was given a free pair of briefs.

Zachary David Alexander "Zac" Efron (born October 18, 1987) is an American actor and singer. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and became known with his lead roles in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical, the WB series Summerland, and the 2007 film version of the Broadway musical Hairspray. Efron has since starred in the films 17 Again, Me and Orson Welles, Charlie St. Cloud, New Year's Eve, and The Lucky One.

In 2007, Rolling Stone declared him the "poster boy for tweenyboppers" and featured him in their late August 2007 issue.

Efron was born in San Luis Obispo, California, and later moved to Arroyo Grande, California. His father, David Efron, is an electrical engineer at a power station, and his mother, Starla Baskett, is a former secretary who worked at the same power plant. Efron has a younger brother, Dylan, and had, as he has described it, a "normal childhood" in a middle class family. He is an agnostic, having never been religious. His surname, "Efron", means "lark" in Hebrew (his paternal grandfather was Jewish).

Andrew Lincoln (born Andrew James Clutterbuck; 14 September 1973) is an English actor, known for his roles in the TV series This Life, Teachers, Strike Back and Afterlife, and the films Love Actually and Heartbreaker. He currently stars as Rick Grimes in the AMC television series The Walking Dead.

Lincoln was born in London to a South African mother, a nurse, and an English father, a civil engineer. He grew up in Hull and moved to Bath at the age of ten. After leaving Beechen Cliff School, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), where he changed his name from Clutterbuck to Lincoln. He grew up with an older brother called Richard Clutterbuck, who is the founding head of Bristol Free School in 2011.

Lincoln made his first on-screen appearance in "Births and Deaths", a 1994 episode of Channel 4 sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey.

His first major role was Edgar "Egg" Cook, one of the lead characters in the highly successful BBC drama This Life (1996–1997). He went on to star as probationary teacher Simon Casey in the Channel 4 sitcom Teachers (2001–2003), and had a lead role as university lecturer and psychologist Robert Bridge in Afterlife (2005).