2011–2015: Beginnings Choi made his acting debut in the
period drama The Duo in 2011. Supporting roles followed, and Choi was cast in crime drama
Special Affairs Team TEN as detective Park Min-ho. Choi reprised his role when the series was renewed for a second season in 2013. He made his big screen debut that same year, starring as a supporting character in the film
Flu and
Secretly, Greatly. In the interim, Choi played several characters on
television series such as
Rooftop Prince,
You Are My Destiny and
Pride and Prejudice. In 2014, Choi took on his first leading role in the
coming-of-age independent film Set Me Free. He played the role of Young-jae, a sixteen-year-old student living in a group home, who pretends that he wants to become a priest in order to prolong his stay at the home. The film was well received by critics, and Choi was praised for his portrayal of the protagonist's inner conflict. He won several awards for his acting, including
Actor of the Year at the
Busan International Film Festival. Later that year, Choi also starred in the action comedy film
Big Match, playing the role of genius hacker Guru. Choi starred as the titular character in the romantic comedy cable series ''
Hogu's Love. The series began airing on February 9, 2015. Choi also took part in the R-rated Hong Kong-Singaporean film In the Room'' later that year. The film featured an anthology of characters, set in a single-room brothel at a hotel in Singapore.
2016–2020: Rising fame and international breakthrough Choi first gained international recognition with the blockbuster
zombie thriller film Train to Busan, where he played the role of high school baseball player, Yong-guk. Premiering at the
2016 Cannes Film Festival on May 13, the film was a critical and commercial success, going on to gross over $93.1 million worldwide. He followed this up with a short, but memorable role as a truck driver in action-adventure film
Okja. This marked his first collaboration with director
Bong Joon-ho and featured an international cast, including
Tilda Swinton and
Paul Dano.
Okja was screened in several independent theatres domestically, and released on streaming platform
Netflix worldwide. Choi continued starring in several other films after this, including
The Princess and the Matchmaker and
Monstrum. In 2018, Choi was cast as a mysterious assassin called the "Nobleman" in the action film
The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion. The dark persona of the Nobleman was a shift from the characters Choi usually played. In a press interview, co-star
Park Hee-soon remarked that Nobleman could be Choi's once-in-a-lifetime character. In 2019, Choi reunited with director
Bong Joon-ho for the black comedy thriller film
Parasite. Choi played the main character Ki-woo, the son of a poor family, who schemes to become employed by a wealthy family by infiltrating their household and posing as unrelated, highly qualified individuals. Choi was first approached by Bong after their first collaboration with
Okja in 2016, who told the actor to "stay skinny" to play the character.
Parasite premiered at the
2019 Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2019, where it became the first South Korean film to win the
Palme d'Or, and was the first film to win with a unanimous vote since
Blue Is the Warmest Colour at the 2013 Festival. Among other numerous accolades,
Parasite won a leading four awards at the
92nd Academy Awards. It became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition, as well as the first film in a language other than English to win
Best Picture. The cast also won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the
26th Screen Actors Guild Awards. In addition to his role as Ki-woo in
Parasite, Choi performed the end credits song "Soju One Glass," which made the shortlist for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song.
2021–present: Leading roles In December 2021, Choi starred in the
SBS drama
Our Beloved Summer He starred in Netflix's crime thriller series
A Killer Paradox in 2024 which was based on the popular
webtoon of the same name. He then starred in the Netflix series
Melo Movie in 2025. ==Filmography==