Sung Hoon: From a national swimmer to a Korean screen beauty, once "charmed" with Chibi Yan

Sung Hoon possesses both talent and beauty, but still struggles to be famous. Few people know that the guy once fell into debt, was financially stuck and had to work hard to act in movies to overcome the turbulence.

Sung Hoon was born on February 14, 1983, and his real name is Bang In Kyu. Besides being an actor, he is also known as a familiar face on the catwalk of Kim chi when owning an extremely standard height of 1.84m.

Before hitting showbiz, Sung Hoon was a professional swimmer on the national team. Starting to conquer the green track at the age of 14, Sung Hoon has won countless tournaments.

However, a serious spinal injury caused him to retire from his playing career. After that, the handsome actor set off to enlist in the army, but also because of injuries he had to be discharged earlier than planned.

Sung Hoon's acting charm came in 2011, when the New Tales of Gisaeng film crew held a casting to find the male lead. The 8X boy boldly registered with the intention of trying, but did not expect to end up surpassing more than 1000 other candidates to be selected.

Until now, Sung Hoon himself couldn't believe he could do this. His role is Ah Da Moo, a rich and arrogant guy who inherits a large corporation, always surrounded by pink shades. Although he had no acting experience, the fisherman performed brilliantly, winning the Best New Actor award in 2011.

This is quite strange for the entertainment industry of Kim Chi, because actors often enter the profession quite early, those who are over 20 years old to start acting are considered too late. However, Sung Hoon made his mark when he was about to turn 30. But with hard work, seriousness, perfectionism, the former swimmer managed to do what many still consider impossible.

Sung Hoon stepped up his acting career. After the success of his debut film New Tales of Gisaeng, he received 3 notable scripts in the following year: The Bodyguard (Chinese film, broadcast on national broadcaster CCTV), Faith (co-starring Lee Min Ho, Kim Tae Hee) and The Birth of a Family.

Although only the main roles, Sung Hoon's acting has received high praise from experts and audiences. Even in the drama "Faith," his role as white-haired Chun Eum Ja overshadowed Lee Min Ho.

A special thing is that this beautiful man seems to be especially charmed with the roles of rich millionaires or successful businessmen. Someone joked that perhaps his "opening" role in the profession was a rich and arrogant young master, so Sung Hoon had a lot of debt to this type of role.

Typically, we can mention the role of a successful businessman in the SBS drama The Birth of a Family (2012), the heir to the conglomerate Kang Moo Yool in the movie Passionate Love (2013). In 2014, he participated in the webdrama 6 Persons Room as the male lead Min so, a rich man who is accidentally injured and taken to a strange hospital.

In 2015, Sung Hoon reprised his role as Lee Kang Hoon in Noble, My Love, a wealthy, powerful CEO of D.O.L., the world's largest economic conglomerate. One day, he was kidnapped, although he escaped, but lost so much blood that he fell into a coma in the middle of the road. Yoon Seo, a veterinarian, discovers Kang Hoon and makes every effort to save him.

Sung Hoon also "caused a fever" with his role as the charming director Cha Jin Wook, digging flowers and accidentally having a one-night stand with the heroine Lee Yoo Mi. Being a handsome, rich dude who is always pursued by many beauties, he was extremely angry when Yoo Mi was left "without clothes" in his car on the beach.

My Secret Romance poses an ironic, "one-of-a-kind" situation: After a one-night stand, while the girl runs away, continues to live playfully and innocently, the boy "holds a grudge", keeping the object left by the other person for 3 years. Later, when meeting again, Lee Yoo Mi from the bean girl passed the nutritionist exam, and Jin Wook from a guy who only knows how to play and flirt with girls has become a talented, mature CEO, dedicated to his work.

At the end of 2020, the Korean beauty suddenly became charmed with Chibi Hoang Yen in the film project "Shadowy Superstar", which was warmly received by the public.

It is known that right from childhood, Sung Hoon has often faced illness and trauma. After leaving the national swimming team due to injury, Sung Hoon "encroached" on acting in 2009, but bad luck has not stopped clinging to him.

In 2019, on the show Night of Real Entertainment, actor Sung Hoon candidly revealed that he used to be heavily in debt because of a sudden change of work direction. Initially, the actor scored his debut project Neophyte Story and My Brother is a Gangster. However, later, his career fell into a state of stalemate, no longer as sought after as before. Financially affected, Sung Hoon fell into debt and destitution.

"I was pretty much indebted after my debut as an actor, but I didn't give up. I thought I couldn't stop acting because of that debt. The debt kept going up because I kept telling myself to keep acting until I couldn't do it anymore," Sung Hoon said. Thanks to relentless efforts on screen, the 1983 beauty was finally able to settle all his debt.

At the current age of 40, Sung Hoon is one of the glamorous male stars of the Korean screen. But he is still missing a role of his life, which can take his name to the next level. Hopefully that "spark" will come to the actor soon.