At the age of 16, Yoo In-na joined an entertainment agency as an apprentice singer in 1998, and had nearly become part of a
girl group. After 11 years and five different agencies, she could not be prominent. Yoo said she had difficulty memorizing the dance choreography required of
K-pop singers, and after practicing for eight hours a day, six days a week, she had resigned from becoming an idol. In 2006, Yoo joined
YG Entertainment as an aspiring actress. She said, "If singing wasn't meant to be, I decided to give acting a go because it seemed fun. I never gave up. A lot of my friends did, though, even though they were prettier and more capable than me." Several supporting roles followed, notably in the 2010 drama
Secret Garden, which she received a Best New Actress award at the
Baeksang Arts Awards, and as the second female lead in
Hong sisters' romantic comedy
The Greatest Love. To maintain public visibility, Yoo Inna joined the cast of the variety show
Heroes, which aired from July 18, 2010, to May 1, 2011. '' press conference in 2012 She was an
MC for '''' from March 3, 2011, to June 4, 2012, for which she won Best Variety Entertainer at the
SBS Entertainment Awards. She was also the
DJ for
KBS Cool FM's ''
Let's Crank Up the Volume'', which is the highest-rated radio program in its timeslot across both
AM and
FM bandwidths. Yoo's vocals were featured in
Humming Urban Stereo's 2011 digital single
"You, That Day" (넌 그날). She also sang for the
soundtrack of her 2011 film
My Black Mini Dress alongside her castmates
Yoon Eun-hye,
Park Han-byul, and
Cha Ye-ryun. In 2012, Yoo starred in her first leading role in the
tvN time-slip romance series
Queen and I, and in and in 2013, she appeared in the KBS drama
You Are the Best! and the SBS drama
My Love from the Star, all of which recorded viewership ratings of over 30% and were greatly loved by viewers. In 2016-2017 she appeared in the tvN drama
Guardian: The Lonely and Great God playing the second female lead. The drama was a commercial success with the final episode recording an 18.68% nationwide audience share, making it the seventh highest-rated drama in Korean cable television history, and she was nominated "Best Supporting Actress" at the
10th Korea Drama Awards. In 2024 Yoo Inna opened her own radio YouTube show titled
Yoo-In Radio with the first guest, Ko Young-bae from Korean band Soran. In July 2025, following
YG Entertainment’s announcement that it would discontinue its actor management division, Yoo signed her first exclusive contract in 19 years with a new agency, Chorokbaem Entertainment. ==Personal life==