The single star also touches upon "the struggles of dating, of falling in love, of searching for love and being there for your friends when they need you. There's no question that to receive anything great, like love or respect, or to better yourself, you have to give a piece of yourself away." (Though he is no longer in touch with ex-girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens, he calls her a "really interesting, sweet person.")

Efron, 26, also addresses his recent tussle with a homeless man in downtown L.A.

"I was drinking a lot, way too much," he says, acknowledging there were drugs, too. "It's never one specific thing. I mean, you're in your 20s, single, going through life in Hollywood, you know? Everything is thrown at you. I wouldn't take anything back; I needed to learn everything I did. But it was an interesting journey, to say the least. I had a friend come pick me up late at night—we were looking for a place downtown to get a bite and catch up. We were having trouble finding somewhere...and the car ran out of gas off the 110. It was ridiculous. We had to pull over, and I called Uber [car service]."

While waiting, Efron says, "A homeless guy, or vagrant, tapped on the driver's-side window. Before I knew it, [my friend] was out of the car, and they started fighting. I saw that [the homeless man] was carrying some sort of a knife, or shank, and I got out of the car to disarm him. At some point, he dropped the knife, and I got hit pretty hard in the face—and almost instantly the police were there to break up the fight." The movie star now calls the incident "the most terrifying moment in my life."

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