K-Drama's Sporting Stars

With Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" winning the Best Picture Oscar in 2020 and "Squid Game" breaking records on Netflix the following year, this decade has seen South Korean film and TV move out of East Asia and well and truly take over the world. With scriptwriters, directors, and, more noticeably, actors becoming household names in the West, K-Drama has taken over. But there's a fascinating past to some of its biggest stars, and that is that they have a credible sporting background. Let's take a look at some of the biggest stars of Korean TV and cinema and their previous lives as athletes. 

Lee Min-ho

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South Korea is one of the powerhouses of Asian football, winning the Asian Cup twice and having qualified for the World Cup 11 times, more than any other country from the continent. So, it makes sense that, with playing, watching, and even mobile betting on both soccer and virtual soccer incredibly popular in the country (source: https://esportsinsider.com/kr/gambling/virtual-football-betting), there would be a K-Drama star with a footballing background.

Lee Min-ho, now best known for his role as wealthy teenager Goo Joon-pyo in the smash hit TV show "Boys over Flowers", played at a respectable level in his youth. However, his being involved in a car accident and the resulting injuries led him to take up acting, and the rest is history. 

Park Sung-woong

Park Sung-woong shot to fame in the 2010s as gangster Lee Joong-goo in the movie "The New World". His powerful physique and intimidating presence have seen him appear in a wide range of movies and TV shows, often in a tough guy role. But there is a certain amount of real-life accuracy to Park's hard man characters. Before becoming an actor, Park was a notable competitor in the martial art of Ssireum, a traditional form of wrestling native to Korea, which is listed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. It was only when he got injured that he took up acting. 

Yoon Hyun-min

Baseball is big business in South Korea, with the KBO league the most popular sports league in the country. For one K-Drama star, though, there is a very special link to the game. Yoon Hyun-min spent a couple of seasons in the big league in the mid-2000s, representing the Hanwha Eagles in 2005 and the Doosan Bears in 2006. However, Yoon wanted more from his life than the glory of the diamond and trained as an actor, taking to the stage in a Korean adaptation of the musical Spring Awakening. He later moved from the stage to the screen, earning respect as a supporting actor before working his way into bigger and bigger parts and starring in the Netflix science fiction drama "My Holo Love" in 2019. 

Lee Si-young

For many of the stars of the sports field, stage, and screen, the acting part of their career has come after their spell doing sports. For one big K-Drama star, though, things happened the other way around. Lee Si-young was one of South Korea's most popular actresses when she trained in boxing to prepare for the role of a boxer in a TV show that was, ultimately, never made. However, her work with former world champion Hong Soo-hwang left her wanting more, and she started competing in South Korea's amateur boxing bouts. Described as having a "very good body for boxing" by one top coach, she won the women's national championship in 2010. Although she has since retired from the ring, she still works out, and her acting still packs a punch. 

Sung Hoon

Sung Hoon had a pretty storied career before becoming a star of some of South Korea's best-loved romantic K-Dramas. Having served in his country's military, he also trained as a swimmer and was on course to compete at a national level before a back injury put paid to his career in the pool. But he used the physical skills he picked up as a competitive swimmer to good use, becoming one of the world of K-Drama's biggest icons and enjoying a successful and critically acclaimed career, too.