1994–2011: Early life and fencing career Wang was born in
Kowloon Tong,
Hong Kong, on 28 March 1994. He was raised into a family of athletes: his father
Wang Ruiji was an Olympian fencer, his mother Zhou Ping was a gymnast of the Chinese national team, and his older brother Winston, born in 1986, did gymnastics and played rugby. At the age of seven, Wang started learning
gymnastics floor exercises from his mother, but three years later, despite having been selected for the Hong Kong team, he gave up because it was hindering his height growth. For the next two or three years, his father, who at the time was the Hong Kong team's head coach, taught him the basics, then Wang was selected for the youth fencing team and began formal training. At the age of twelve, he participated in the national games and won his first gold medal. he was ranked number one in cadet and junior sabre in Hong Kong, and in youth sabre in Asia, and number 11 in world junior sabre. he won in total 1 Asian gold medal, 3 national gold medals, and 9 internationals and Hong Kong gold medals, including first place at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship in 2011. and in
Shanghai,
Guangzhou,
Sicily,
Copenhagen and
Ireland. Wang became interested in music in his sixth grade after his mother bought him a DVD of a Michael Jackson concert to entertain him while he was sick; he ended up watching it over and over again for four or five days. He then joined the
American International School dance club, performing "
Where is the Love?" by the
Black Eyed Peas in the school talent competition, which made him contemplate a future as a singer. He has stated multiple times that even during fencing tournaments, he had always felt like he was performing and putting on a show. His love for music also prompted him to try composing his own music with
GarageBand. Wang was first approached by an idol scout who was looking for members for
Exo-M at the
Beijing Olympics in 2008. he was noticed by a representative of South Korean talent agency
JYP Entertainment and invited to participate in the global auditions in
Kowloon, At that time, Wang was preparing for the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championship and the
2012 London Olympics, and turned down two scholarships offered by the
Hong Kong University and
Stanford University for fencing as a result of the successful audition.
2013–2016: Debut with Got7 and solo activities In 2013, Wang made an appearance on the reality survival program
Win: Who Is Next. The program was a competition between
YG Entertainment trainees and JYPE trainees. Wang appeared alongside fellow trainees
Mark,
Yugyeom, and
BamBam, who were then selected as members of
Got7. The group released its first single, "Girls Girls Girls," of its debut
EP Got It? on 16 January 2014. In September 2014, Wang joined his first variety show,
SBS'
Roommate, as a member in its second season. Wang was later awarded the Newcomer Award at the 2014
SBS Entertainment Awards. He subsequently appeared on several other Korean variety shows such as
Law of the Jungle,
Happy Together,
Radio Star,
Problematic Men,
Our Neighborhood Arts and Physical Education,
Saturday Night Live Korea,
A Look At Myself, and others. On 12 May 2015, Wang was appointed as a new
MC for SBS' music show
Inkigayo. In December 2015, despite having no experience, Wang started hosting
Go Fridge, the Chinese version of the show
Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, alongside
He Jiong. He hosted the show for seven seasons, In March 2016, Wang was appointed as MC for
Fresh Sunday, a show on
Hunan TV. He received praise from Chinese viewers for his wit and sense of humor, rising as a variety show star. On 29 April 2016, Got7 held their first concert in Seoul, where Wang performed his self-composed songs "I Love It" and "WOLO". In July 2016, Wang appeared on the Chinese reality TV series,
Fighting Man. At the end of the year he was named Variety Star of the Year at the Tencent Variety Show Star Awards and Popular Artist of the Year at the
Sina Weibo Awards. He was one of the busiest K-pop idols of the year, constantly flying between South Korea, China and Japan.
2017–2020: Early musical releases and Mirrors In June 2017, Wang founded
Team Wang for his solo activities in China and established a partnership with Snake or the Rabbit, a distribution company based in the United States; however, as he was still under JYPE, he couldn't promote nor release his solo music in South Korea and in Japan. His first English-language single titled "Papillon" was released on 26 August and debuted at No. 1 on the
Billboard China V Chart on the week of 16 September. On 30 August, he released "Novoland: The Castle in the Sky" (), the theme song for iOS game
Novoland: The Castle in the Sky 3D, breaking away from hip-hop and making a first try with melodious and classical music. In September, Wang dropped out of Got7 activities in Japan due to health concerns and conflicting schedules. Throughout a year, he'd spend half of his time in China for his solo stuff, and half in Korea with the group. On 30 November, he released his second solo single, "Okay": similar to "Papillon", he wrote the lyrics, and composed and arranged the song together with Boytoy. In December, he was named the Breakthrough Singer of the Year at the
Tencent Video Star Awards.On 20 April 2018, Wang released his third self-written single, "Dawn of Us", which speaks of appreciating the present and living with enthusiasm. His subsequent release "Fendiman", a collaboration with
Fendi China, appeared at No. 1 on both the iTunes Singles chart and the iTunes Pop chart in the United States, making Wang the first Chinese solo artist to achieve that feat. In August 2018, he was awarded the Next Big Thing award at
2018 Teen Choice Awards. On 22 October, Wang signed with Canxing Culture to enter the international market; the following month, he released "Different Game", featuring
Gucci Mane. In March 2019, Wang performed a show titled "328 Journey Festival" at the Beijing Olympics Sports Center, selling out 5,000 tickets in 98 seconds. On 24 September, he released "Bullet to the Heart", the first single from his first album
Mirrors. The song debuted at No. 1 on the
Billboard China chart. The second single "Dway!" was published on 22 October.
Mirrors, for which Wang supervised the whole process, and was personally involved in arrangements, lyrics writing, and music video shooting, was released on 25 October, reaching No. 32 on the
Billboard 200 and becoming the highest-charting debut album for a Chinese artist in the history of the chart. On 20 March 2020, Wang released the self-written single "100 Ways", mixing western and Chinese culture. It became the first song by a Chinese and K-pop solo artist to debut on
Mediabase's U.S. Top 40 radio chart: it entered the chart in May, ranking 39th, and maintained its spot with a steady rise, ranking #24 on 19 July. On 7 July, Wang launched his fashion brand
Team Wang Design, for which he served as the designer and creative director, after three years of development. On 4 September, he released the
EDM single "Pretty Please", a collaboration with Swedish duo
Galantis. He was behind the whole planning and editing of the music video, which paid homage to Hong Kong's love movies from the 90s, and directed it with Conglin. On 5 September, it was announced that Wang had invested in
esports organization
Victory Five. In December 2020, he released the Chinese-language single "Should've Let Go" with
JJ Lin. At the end of the year, Wang ranked 41st on
Forbes China Celebrity 100 list. Wang relocated to
Beijing, and Team Wang started to run his international activities. Later that month, he released the self-produced Chinese single, "Alone." In March 2021, Wang was featured on three new singles: "Magnetic" by
Rain, "So Bad" by
Vava, and "M.I.A." by
Afgan. On 26 March, he released his new English single, "LMLY", which was included in
Teen Vogue's list of the best K-pop songs of 2021. He performed the song at the ''
Harper's Bazaar Fashion Icons Party, where he was named Musician of the Year. In June 2021, Wang ranked in the top 10 on Forbes China Celebrity 100 list and was listed on Tatler Hong Kong'' Asia's Most Influential individuals in the culture field. The following month, he began serving as a mentor on the Tencent variety show,
Girls Like Us. His next single "Drive You Home" was released on 29 July in collaboration with
Internet Money. In August 2021, Wang announced hip-hop group Panthepack under Team Wang, consisting of himself, rapper Ice,
J.Sheon, and
Karencici. Their single "Buzz" was released on 28 August, followed by their 10-track debut album,
The Pack, in September. Throughout 2021, Wang was honored with numerous awards, including Best Male Artist of the Year at the
NetEase Indie Music Awards, Most Influential Male Singer in Asia at the Chinese Top Ten Awards, and Best Original Music Award for the single "Alone" at the Global Chinese Music event. On 31 March 2022, the singer released "Blow", which preceded the release of his full album
Magic Man. On 16 April, he performed at
Coachella with "100 Ways", "Blow" and the unreleased song "Cruel". In May 2022, he joined Got7 to release the
eponymous extended play. On 12 July, he held a one-hour long show at
Rajamangala Stadium, opening the football match between
Manchester United and
Liverpool.
Magic Man was released on 9 September 2022, and debuted at No. 15 on the
Billboard 200 in the US, also ranking third on the Top Album Sales and on the Top Current Album Sales. selling out shows in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, London and Paris. After the Asian and European stops, the tour continued in North America, Mexico and South America. On 17 April 2023, he presented a short snippet of his collaboration with
Ciara, "Slow", which was released on the same day. Since December 2023, Wang was forced into hiatus to address his depression and mental exhaustion.
2024–present: Magic Man 2 On 14 April 2024, Wang appeared onstage at Coachella again, performing "Feeling Lucky" with
Bibi, which was released the following 26 April. At the beginning of 2025 he joined Got7 to commemorate their eleventh anniversary with the release of the extended play
Winter Heptagon, for which he co-wrote the song "Smooth". On 18 July 2025, he released his third album
Magic Man 2, which was anticipated by the singles "High Alone", "GBAD", "Buck" and "Hate to Love".
Magic Man 2 debuted at number 13 on the
Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting album by a Chinese artist in the chart's history. The omonymous world tour started in Bangkok, Thailand, on 3 October. On 5 December and 8, Wang performed at
iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball Tour in Los Angeles and Chicago, respectively. == Artistry ==