you can avoid the first loop if you change

if ($current > $max) {

to

if ( not defined $max or $current > $max) {

$max would simply stay undef if all values were even.

---

no it's more complicated ... wait

---

This should do:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = ( -11, -13, 4, 22, 17);
print "Result: ",find_max_odd(@array) // "undefined", "\n";

sub find_max_odd {
   my $max; 
   for (@_) {
      next unless $_ % 2;
      unless ( defined $max ) {
         $max = $_;
         next;
      }
      $max = $_ if $_ > $max;
   }
   return $max;
}
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---

I was confused, but becaus eof short-circuiting of the or the first idea should do too:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @array = (-11,-13,4, 22, 17);
print find_max_odd(@array), "\n";
sub find_max_odd {
    my $max; 
    while (my $current = shift) {
        next unless $current % 2;
        if (not defined $max or $current > $max) {
            $max = $current;
        }
    }
    return $max // "undefined";
 }
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