Actor You Need to Know: Choi Hyun-wook

Choi Hyun-wook is never without the edge or energy that makes him an amazing actor. His natural charm, I feel, is the reason that won’t let you sell him short, no matter the role he’s voicing. Choi sort of owns who he becomes on-screen with precise control, giving the character a sense of substance as well as sensitivity.

Acting wasn’t his plan, at least not until he suffered an irreparable injury that halted his 10-year baseball career and prompted him to branch out into acting. His first break in Korean entertainment came in 2019 as he got through an audition, landing a spot in the web sitcom Real: Time: Love. Choi must have drawn notice for his work since, following that, he had a role in the web drama Pop Out Boy! (2020).

On-screen, the “bad guy” is surely mysterious because he plays on the nuanced feelings and instincts sleeping inside of us, though the “good guy” is usually loved. So, conflicting people and wicked ones pique our intrigue. And Choi has a way of pulling that off with aplomb, evoking thoughts of his portrayals in 2021’s Taxi Driver and Racket Boys. While he was a reckless school bully in Taxi Driver, he turned into a kind peacemaker in Racket Boys and won Best New Actor at the 2021 SBS Drama Awards for the performances.

Choi Hyun-wook, 22, at the time of writing, is one with vivid expressions and persuasiveness, an honesty that intensifies the sentimental aspects of a story. It’s great to watch him play someone like that, and it’s all the more impressive to me that he’s capable of blending delicate moments of drama, humor, and tension so well. No wonder his parts in hits like Twenty-Five Twenty-One (2022), Weak Hero Class 1 (2022), and D.P. 2 (2021-2023) got him gold stars.

Weak Hero Class 1, based on the webtoon Weak Hero, earned him the Whynot Award at the Blue Dragon Series Awards in 2023. Its first three episodes debuted at the 27th Busan International Film Festival and soon became a smash, adding to Choi’s name. In a class full of cruel bullying, he plays Ahn Su-ho, a tough high schooler best known for his fighting skills. Choi expertly weaves Su-ho’s bohemian, gregarious personality, mood, allegiance, and generosity alongside his combative prowess and repeatedly puts himself on the line for his friends. His presence reflects the passion that permeates the act and gives the actor the power to liven up the drama with profound meaning.

Choi expanded his horizons with the mystery crime thriller web series High Cookie (2023), co-starring Nam Ji-hyun. Here, Choi is an exemplary student in an elitist high school and a perceived good guy, who, by the way, is the baker of the titular cookie that, while it grants wishes with a single bite, can also be catastrophic if consumed more. Choi’s and the cast’s fame took off as High Cookie became a success story. 

Yet, in my book, Twinkling Watermelon—the fantasy romance drama, second on our list of the 10 best K-dramas of 2023—is Choi Hyun-wook’s best to date. It’s an insight into the essence of life and relationships, based on the weird escapades of Ha Eun-gyeol (Ryeoun), a high school student whose parents and elder brother are deaf-mute. Following an event, he somehow time-travels to 1995 and meets his father, Ha Yi-chan (Choi), who was 18 at the time and could hear and speak! Yi-chan is shocked to hear Eun-gyeol call him dad. Eun-gyeol, equally bewildered, starts searching for answers and soon joins Yi-chan’s band, which sets off an epic tale of romance, friendship, humor, and discoveries.

Not to mention how inventively music serves as its cathartic element—its unpredictable nature, full of subtleties and sensitive instances centered on the characters and their pasts—is what makes it so wonderful. Choi shines in every scene and inch of what he does in the show. Shout out to the moment in the final chapter of the story where he becomes deaf and tears in front of his grandmother. That hits very close to home.