It looks like he was paying attention, ducking down under the tail cone tip, and did not see the tail rotor or realized too late. I can see his knees buckle before the tail rotor impacts him.
Possibly he was around small planes just enough and was told to never go around the nose, regardless of the reason.
With this photo as an example, there would be nearly none of the tail rotor disk visible from the direction of the deceased and it would be almost entirely hidden on the walk back there:
https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/10761473
Am I right that the tail rotor primarily pushes air to the port side and so would not have blown air at the deceased?