Lee Jung-jae: The Life Story Behind Squid Game's Star

Lee Jung-jae is the man who became the face of the biggest television show in the world. When Squid Game came out in 2021, his face was everywhere: on posters, on screens, and in the green tracksuit that became a costume known around the world. He played Seong Gi-hun, a man in debt, a divorced father, a gambler who has lost almost everything, and he played him with a warmth and a sadness that made audiences in every country care about him. Then he won the Emmy for Best Actor, the first Asian actor ever to win that award for a drama, and the first person ever to win it for a performance not in English. It was a historic moment, and it was the reward for a career that had lasted for nearly thirty years.

He was born in Seoul in 1972, and he began his career as a model, a handsome young man with a face that photographers loved. He moved into acting in the early 1990s, and he learned his craft in films and dramas, playing romantic leads, gangsters, and kings. He was a star in Korea for decades before the world knew his name, and he had already built one of the finest film careers in the country when Squid Game found him.

What follows is the story of how a model from Seoul became one of Korea’s great film actors, how he played gangsters and kings, how he directed a film at Cannes, and how, at the age of forty-eight, he became a global star. It is a story about patience, about talent, and about a man who was ready when the biggest role of his life arrived.

Growing Up in Seoul and the Model Who Became an Actor

Lee Jung-jae was born on 15 December 1972 in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Seoul in the 1970s was a city growing fast, with new buildings, new fashions, and new opportunities, and Lee grew up in that world. He was a tall, handsome young man, and people noticed him. He began his career as a fashion model, working in Seoul’s growing fashion world, and his face became known to photographers and to audiences. Modelling taught him how to be in front of a camera, how to hold himself, and how to make an image speak. Those lessons would serve him well as an actor.

He moved into acting in the early 1990s, making his debut in television and then in film. The move from modelling to acting is not easy. A model is used to being looked at. An actor must be looked at and must also make the audience feel something. Lee learned that difference, and he learned it by working. He took on roles in dramas and in films, and he began to build a reputation as an actor who was serious about his craft, not only a handsome face.

His early years were a time of learning. He played romantic leads, and he played young men in love, and he did it well. But he was also learning the deeper skills of acting: how to listen, how to react, and how to make a character feel real. He studied his roles, he worked hard on set, and he earned the respect of the directors who worked with him. He was not content to be a model who acted. He wanted to be an actor, in the fullest sense, and he worked to become one.

By the mid-1990s, he was a rising star in Korea. He had the looks, he had the talent, and he had the discipline to keep getting better. The film world was beginning to notice him, and the roles were getting bigger. He was on his way to becoming one of the leading men of his generation, and he would stay there for the next thirty years.

The Young Man, An Affair, and the Romantic Star

Lee Jung-jae’s early film career was built on romantic roles. In 1994, he starred in The Young Man, a film that made him a star, and he became known as one of the most promising young actors in Korea. He played young men in love, men who were handsome and charming, and he played them with a warmth that made audiences love him. He was the kind of actor who could make a romantic scene feel real, not only pretty, and that made him a favourite with directors and with audiences.

In 1998, he starred in An Affair, playing a young man who falls in love with an older married woman. The film was a sensation, and Lee’s performance was praised for its maturity and its feeling. He played a man who is in love, who knows that the love is forbidden, and who cannot help himself, and he played it with a sadness that made the audience understand him. It was a performance that showed he was more than a romantic star. He was an actor who could play complex, difficult emotions, and who could make the audience feel them.

Through the late 1990s, he continued to work in films and in television, building a career that was both popular and respected. He was a star, but he was also an actor who took his work seriously. He chose his roles with care, he prepared for them, and he gave each one his best. That discipline made him one of the most trusted leading men in Korea, and it set the foundation for the next stage of his career, when he would move from romantic leads to the darker, more complex roles that would define him.

His romantic years are worth remembering, because they show the range he had from the start. He could play a young man in love with charm and with feeling, and he could also play a man in a forbidden affair with sadness and with depth. That range, the ability to be both light and dark, would serve him well in the years to come, when he would play gangsters, kings, and a gambler in a deadly game.

The Housemaid, New World, and the Gangster Years

In the 2010s, Lee Jung-jae’s career entered a new phase. He began to play darker, more complex roles, and he became known as one of the great actors of Korean crime cinema. In 2010, he starred in The Housemaid, playing the master of a wealthy household who begins an affair with his maid. The film is a portrait of class, desire, and power, and Lee’s performance is cold, charming, and frightening. He plays a man who uses people and who feels no remorse, and he makes that man feel real, which is far more frightening than playing him as a simple villain.

In 2013, he starred in New World, one of the most acclaimed Korean crime films of its decade, playing a police officer who has infiltrated a gang and who is torn between his duty and his loyalty to the men he has come to know. It is a performance of great complexity, and it is one of the finest of his career. He plays a man who is living a lie, who is afraid of being discovered, and who does not know who he really is anymore. The audience feels his fear, his confusion, and his sadness, and the film becomes a tragedy, not only a thriller.

He also starred in Assassination in 2015, a historical action film about Korean resistance fighters in the 1930s, playing a character who is part of a plot to kill a Japanese general. The film was a huge commercial success, and it showed that Lee could carry a big, expensive historical epic as well as a dark crime drama. He was becoming one of the few Korean actors who could do everything, and directors valued that range.

Through these years, Lee was building a reputation as an actor who could play the most difficult men in Korean cinema, and who could make them feel human. He played gangsters, policemen, and kings, and he played them all with the same seriousness. He had moved far beyond the romantic star of the 1990s, and he had become a complete actor, one who could play any role and make it his own.

Squid Game and the Role That Changed the World

In 2021, Lee Jung-jae took on the role that would change his life: Seong Gi-hun, known as Player 456, in Squid Game, the Netflix drama about people in debt who play children’s games for a huge prize, with death as the penalty for losing. Gi-hun is a divorced father, a gambler, a man who has failed at almost everything, and who joins the game because he has nothing left to lose. Lee played him with a warmth, a humour, and a sadness that made audiences in every country love him. He was not a hero. He was an ordinary man, flawed and kind, and that ordinariness made him unforgettable.

Squid Game became the most-watched series in the history of Netflix, seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world. It was a phenomenon, and Lee was at its centre. The green tracksuit he wore became a costume known everywhere, and his face became one of the most recognisable in the world. He had been a star in Korea for nearly thirty years, but now he was a global star, known to viewers in every country, including people who had never watched a Korean drama before.

In 2022, he won the Emmy Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series for Squid Game, becoming the first Asian actor ever to win that award, and the first person ever to win it for a performance not in English. It was a historic moment, not only for Lee but for Korean television and for Asian actors everywhere. He accepted the award with humility and with gratitude, and he spoke about the honour of representing Korean actors on the world stage. The win was a fitting reward for a career that had lasted for nearly three decades.

Squid Game also changed Lee’s life in a practical way. He became a global star, with offers from Hollywood and from around the world, and he became a symbol of the rise of Korean entertainment. He handled that fame with the same calm and discipline he had shown throughout his career. He did not let it change him. He remained the actor from Seoul who had worked hard for thirty years, and who was grateful for the recognition.

Hunt, Directing, and the Filmmaker

In 2022, Lee Jung-jae made his debut as a film director with Hunt, a spy thriller set in Korea in the 1980s, in which he also starred. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, one of the highest honours for a first-time director, and it was a success. Hunt is a complex, stylish film about two intelligence agents hunting a North Korean mole, and it showed that Lee was not only a great actor but also a talented director. He had spent thirty years learning how films are made, by watching the directors he worked with, and he put that learning into his own film.

Directing is a different skill from acting, and Lee approached it with the same discipline he had shown as an actor. He prepared carefully, he worked closely with his cast and crew, and he made a film that was both exciting and intelligent. The success of Hunt proved that he was a filmmaker, not only a star who wanted to try directing. It added a new dimension to his career, and it showed that he had more to give than acting alone.

He has continued to act in the later seasons of Squid Game, returning to the role of Gi-hun and deepening the character’s story. The later seasons showed Gi-hun as a man changed by the game, a man who returns to stop it, and Lee played that change with the same truth he had shown in the first season. The role has become the defining part of his later career, and it is one that audiences around the world will remember him for.

Lee Jung-jae’s career is still going, and his story is still being written. He has played romantic leads, gangsters, kings, and a gambler in a deadly game, and he has played them all with a skill that few actors can match. He has won an Emmy, he has directed a film at Cannes, and he has become one of the most famous Korean actors in the world. Whatever comes next, his place in the history of Korean entertainment is secure.

The Model Years and the Discipline of a Leading Man

Lee Jung-jae began his career as a fashion model, and that beginning shaped him in ways that are easy to overlook. A model learns how to stand, how to move, and how to make a camera love him, and those are useful skills for an actor. But modelling also teaches something harder: how to be looked at without losing yourself. A model is an image, and an actor must be a person. Lee learned to make that change, and he did it by working hard on his acting, by studying his roles, and by refusing to be only a face. That refusal is the reason he is still a star thirty years later.

His early years as a model also taught him discipline. Fashion work is demanding, with long days, early calls, and the need to look perfect at all times. Lee learned to take care of himself, to be on time, and to be professional, and he carried that discipline into acting. Directors who worked with him in the 1990s said that he was always prepared, always on time, and always ready to work. That professionalism is not glamorous, but it is the foundation of a long career, and it is one of the reasons Lee has lasted so long.

The move from modelling to acting is not easy, and many models fail at it. A model is used to being silent, to letting the photograph speak. An actor must speak, must feel, and must make the audience believe him. Lee learned that difference by taking on roles in television dramas, where he had to learn his lines, hit his marks, and act opposite other people. He was not a natural actor at first. He was a model learning to act, and he learned it the hard way, by doing it, day after day, in front of a camera that does not forgive mistakes.

His good looks were both a gift and a burden. They opened doors, but they also made people doubt whether he had real talent. Lee answered that doubt by choosing roles that demanded more than looks. In An Affair, he played a young man in a forbidden love, and he played him with a sadness that made the audience forget his face and remember his feeling. In New World, he played a police officer torn between duty and loyalty, and he played him with a complexity that had nothing to do with being handsome. Those roles proved that he was an actor, not only a model, and they silenced the doubters.

The discipline he learned as a model also shows in the way he has managed his career. He has not chased every role, and he has not worked constantly for the sake of being seen. He has chosen his parts with care, he has taken breaks when he needed them, and he has returned to work when he was ready. That patience is rare in a star, and it is the reason his performances still feel fresh. He does not act because he has to. He acts because he wants to, and because he has something to say.

His physical presence is another part of his craft. He is tall, he moves well, and he carries himself like a leading man. In Squid Game, that presence is essential, because Gi-hun must be a man the audience follows through a deadly game, and Lee’s presence makes the audience follow him. In Hunt, as a director, he used his understanding of physical presence to stage scenes that feel tense and real. He knows how a body tells a story, and he uses that knowledge in every role he plays.

His work as a director also grew out of his years as a model and an actor. He spent thirty years on sets, watching directors work, learning how a film is made, and storing that knowledge for the day when he would make his own film. When that day came, with Hunt, he was ready, because he had been preparing for it without knowing it, for three decades. That is the mark of a serious artist: he learns from everything, even from the work that seems unrelated, and he uses it when the time comes.

In the end, the model years were not a detour. They were the beginning of a career built on discipline, on presence, and on the willingness to learn. Lee Jung-jae became a leading man not because he was handsome, but because he worked hard, because he learned his craft, and because he never stopped growing. That is a lesson for anyone who starts in one place and wants to go somewhere else: the skills you learn at the start are never wasted, if you use them well.

His discipline also shows in the way he looks after his body and his voice, because a leading man must be ready for anything, from a long shoot in the rain to a fight scene that takes a whole day to film. Lee has always taken that preparation seriously, training, resting, and arriving on set ready to work. That professionalism is not glamorous, but it is the reason directors trust him with their biggest films, and it is the reason his performances still feel fresh after thirty years. A star who respects the work, and the people he works with, will always have work, and Lee has proven that again and again. That respect is the quiet foundation of a career that has now lasted for more than three decades.

My Take:

I think Lee Jung-jae is an actor who teaches me the value of being ready. He was a star in Korea for nearly thirty years before Squid Game, and when the biggest role of his life arrived, at the age of forty-eight, he was ready for it. He did not become great overnight. He became great over decades, one role at a time, and when the world finally noticed him, he was already one of the finest actors in Korea. I think that is a lesson for anyone who feels that their chance has not come yet. Your chance may be coming, and the work you do now is what will make you ready for it when it arrives.

What moves me most about him is his performance as Seong Gi-hun. Gi-hun is not a hero. He is a divorced father, a gambler, a man who has failed at almost everything, and who joins a deadly game because he has nothing left to lose. Lee plays him with a warmth and a sadness that make the audience love him, even though he is flawed. I think that is the hardest kind of acting: to play a flawed man and to make the audience care about him, not in spite of his flaws but because of them. Lee does it, and he does it so well that audiences in every country, in every language, felt for Gi-hun. That is a rare gift, and it is the reason Squid Game worked.

I also think about his Emmy win, because it was a historic moment. He was the first Asian actor to win Best Actor in a Drama at the Emmys, and the first person to win it for a performance not in English. That matters, not only for Lee but for every Asian actor who has been told that they cannot win the highest honours, and for every actor who works in a language other than English. Lee proved that a performance in Korean can be recognised as the best in the world, and that proof will open doors for many actors who come after him. I am grateful to him for that, and I think the whole world of acting is better for it.

His move into directing impresses me too. Hunt was his first film as a director, and it was shown at Cannes, which is an extraordinary achievement for a first-time director. It shows that Lee is not content to be only an actor. He wants to tell stories, to make films, and to use everything he has learned in thirty years on set. I admire that ambition, because it takes courage to step behind the camera after a lifetime in front of it. Lee did it, and he did it well, and I hope he directs more films, because the world needs directors who understand acting as deeply as he does.

I also feel a deep respect for his long career in Korean film. He played romantic leads in the 1990s, gangsters in the 2010s, and a gambler in the 2020s, and he played them all with the same seriousness. He did not stay in one kind of role. He grew, he changed, and he took on harder parts as he got older. That growth is what makes a career last. An actor who plays the same role for thirty years will become boring. An actor who keeps challenging himself will stay interesting, and Lee has stayed interesting for three decades. I think that is a model for any career, not only acting: keep growing, keep learning, and do not be afraid to change.

There is something else I want to say, about his humility. He won an Emmy, he became a global star, and he directed a film at Cannes, and yet he still acts like a working actor, a man who is grateful for the work and who treats every role with care. That humility is rare, and it is admirable. Fame can change people, and it can make them arrogant. Lee has not let it change him. He is still the actor from Seoul who started as a model and who worked hard to become an actor, and I think that is why audiences still love him.

What I would tell a young actor who reads this story is to be patient and to be ready. Lee was patient for thirty years, and he was ready when Squid Game came. If he had given up, if he had decided that his chance had passed, the world would never have seen Seong Gi-hun. But he did not give up, and the world did see him, and it changed his life. I think that is a lesson for all of us: do the work, keep getting better, and trust that the right moment will come. It may come late, but if you are ready, it will come.

In the end, my feeling about Lee Jung-jae is one of admiration and gratitude. I admire his talent, his patience, and his courage in becoming a director. I am grateful that he gave us Seong Gi-hun, that he won the Emmy, and that he has shown the world what Korean acting can do. He is Squid Game’s star, and the title is deserved. But more than that, he is a great actor, and his career is a reminder that the best work often comes after many years of quiet, patient effort. I hope he keeps acting and directing for many years, because I want to see what he does next.

I also think about his years as a model, because they shaped him in a way that is easy to overlook. A model learns how to be looked at without losing himself, and that is a hard skill. Lee learned it, and then he learned something harder: how to be a person on screen, not only an image. That change took years, and it took hard work, and I admire him for making it. Many models try to become actors and fail, because they cannot make that change. Lee made it, and he made it so completely that people forgot he was ever a model. That is a remarkable achievement, and it shows his discipline.

I keep thinking about An Affair, because it is the film that showed he was more than a romantic star. He plays a young man who falls in love with an older married woman, and he plays him with a sadness that makes the audience understand him. It is a performance that could have been simple, a young man in love, but Lee made it complex. He showed the longing, the guilt, and the helplessness of a man who cannot help what he feels. I think that is the mark of a great actor: to take a simple story and to make it feel deep, and Lee did that at the age of twenty-six, when many actors are still learning their craft.

His performance in New World is the one I think about when I want to understand his range. He plays a police officer who has infiltrated a gang and who is torn between his duty and his loyalty to the men he has come to know. It is a performance of great complexity, and it is one of the finest of his career. He plays a man who is living a lie, who is afraid of being discovered, and who does not know who he really is anymore. The audience feels his fear, his confusion, and his sadness, and the film becomes a tragedy, not only a thriller. That is the power of Lee’s acting: he makes a crime film feel like a story about a human being.

I also think about Hunt, and about what it takes to direct a film at Cannes. Lee spent thirty years on sets, watching directors work, and he stored that knowledge for the day when he would make his own film. When that day came, he was ready. Hunt is a complex, stylish spy thriller, and it showed that Lee was not only a great actor but also a talented director. I admire that ambition, because it takes courage to step behind the camera after a lifetime in front of it. Lee did it, and he did it well, and I hope he directs more films.

There is something else I want to say, about his Emmy win. He was the first Asian actor to win Best Actor in a Drama at the Emmys, and the first person to win it for a performance not in English. That matters, not only for Lee but for every Asian actor who has been told that they cannot win the highest honours. Lee proved that a performance in Korean can be recognised as the best in the world, and that proof will open doors for many actors who come after him. I am grateful to him for that, and I think the whole world of acting is better for it.

I think about Seong Gi-hun once more, because he is not a hero in the usual sense. He is a divorced father, a gambler, a man who has failed at almost everything, and he joins a deadly game because he has nothing left to lose. Lee plays him with a warmth and a sadness that make the audience love him, even though he is flawed. I think that is the hardest kind of acting: to play a flawed man and to make the audience care about him, not in spite of his flaws but because of them. Lee does it, and he does it so well that audiences in every country felt for Gi-hun. That is a rare gift.

I also learn from Lee that a star can belong to two worlds at once. He is a Korean star and a global star, a television star and a film star, a leading man and a director. He did not have to choose one world and give up the other. He kept them both, and he let each one make him better at the other. I think that is a model for anyone who works between two cultures, or two languages, or two kinds of work. You do not have to give up one to succeed in the other. You can carry both, and the carrying itself can make you stronger.

I think about his humility, too, because he won an Emmy, he became a global star, and he directed a film at Cannes, and yet he still acts like a working actor, a man who is grateful for the work and who treats every role with care. That humility is rare, and it is admirable. Fame can change people, and it can make them arrogant. Lee has not let it change him. He is still the actor from Seoul who started as a model and who worked hard to become an actor, and I think that is why audiences still love him. Humility is not weakness. It is strength.

I also think about the future, and about what Lee will do next. He has played romantic leads, gangsters, kings, and a gambler in a deadly game, and he has directed a film at Cannes. What will he do next? I do not know, and that is part of the excitement. An actor who keeps growing, who keeps challenging himself, is an actor who will always surprise us. I hope he keeps acting and directing for many years, because I want to see what he does next, and because the world needs actors who are as talented and as disciplined as he is.

In the end, my feeling about Lee Jung-jae is one of admiration and gratitude. I admire his talent, his patience, and his courage in becoming a director. I am grateful that he gave us Seong Gi-hun, that he won the Emmy, and that he has shown the world what Korean acting can do. He is Squid Game’s star, and the title is deserved. But more than that, he is a great actor, and his career is a reminder that the best work often comes after many years of quiet, patient effort. I hope he keeps going, because his story is not finished, and I want to see how it ends.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Lee Jung-jae best known for?

He is best known for playing Seong Gi-hun, Player 456, in Netflix’s Squid Game, for which he won the Emmy for Best Actor. In Korea, he is also famous for New World, The Housemaid, and Assassination.

When was Lee Jung-jae born?

Lee Jung-jae was born on 15 December 1972 in Seoul, South Korea. He began his career as a fashion model before moving into acting in the early 1990s.

What Emmy did Lee Jung-jae win for Squid Game?

He won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2022 for Squid Game, becoming the first Asian actor to win that award and the first person to win it for a performance not in English.

Did Lee Jung-jae direct a film?

Yes, he made his directing debut with Hunt in 2022, a spy thriller set in 1980s Korea in which he also starred. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and was a success.

What role did Lee Jung-jae play in New World?

He played a police officer who has infiltrated a gang and is torn between his duty and his loyalty to the gang members he has come to know. The 2013 crime film is one of the most acclaimed of his career.

Who did Lee Jung-jae play in Squid Game?

He played Seong Gi-hun, Player 456, a divorced father and gambler in debt who joins the deadly games. His warm, truthful performance made Gi-hun one of the most loved characters in television history.