Whilst between jobs, Smith worked as a labourer. In 2009, he was offered the role of Andrew Robinson in the hit soap opera Neighbours, but nearly had to turn it down because he was in hospital. He says, "I'd been doing some work as a labourer and I'd been lifting up concrete floors when some of the concrete flew up and smashed into my face. My nose got all swollen and became infected, so I was kept on a drip of antibiotics for a week. I got the call to say I got the part while I still in hospital on the Sunday night (in Queensland) and I had to be in Melbourne by 7 am the next day."