Lee's first credited role was as baseball player Koo Chun-seo in the sports film
Superstar Mr. Gam. He was cast in his first lead role in the 2005 film
Blossom Again opposite veteran actress
Kim Jung-eun and was nominated for Best New Actor at the
Blue Dragon Film Awards and
Baeksang Arts Awards. His next film was the 2006 Japanese-South Korean co-production
26 Years Diary, in which he portrayed the
Korean student who was killed trying to save a man who had fallen off the platform at the
Shin-Ōkubo Station. It garnered him much attention in Japan due to the high profile nature of the actual incident, which had occurred in 2001. He was cast in the second male lead role in the romantic comedy
Two Outs in the Ninth Inning, in which he played a college baseball player aspiring to go professional. After a stint of playing mostly protagonist roles, he portrayed the villainous nemesis of
Park Yoo-chun in the
sageuk fusion drama
Rooftop Prince followed by the scheming son of a
chaebol family in
Pots of Gold. Following his discharge from the military in July 2015, Lee's comeback project was the
MBC weekend drama
My Mom. He then starred in the
KBS drama
My Golden Life, which began airing in late 2017 and became a ratings hit domestically. In April 2020, Lee and his mother joined the cast of the reality show
My Little Old Boy. In December 2021, Lee released his first solo exhibition 'Lee Motion' and made his debut as a painter. In June 2022, Lee will hold a second art exhibition, starting from June 21, 2022, until July 20. ==Personal life==