I thought that was pretty obviously tongue-in-cheek: ex-zombie...ex-skier...ex-patriate. And this was disclaimed as a very rough first draft - I'm guessing the author (in subsequent drafts),an editor or a test-reader would have caught it & have it revised (it's pretty low-effort wordplay - but that's more than OK for a first draft as disclaimed, and the author could even keep it if they feel strongly about it)