Lee Ji-eun’s rags to riches tale is one of the great success stories of K-pop. Her parents fell heavily into debt while she was growing up and little IU and her brother were shunted around to different relatives while her parents worked, and lived part of her early life with her grandma in a one-room apartment crawling with cockroaches, and not having enough to eat. After training hard, failing 20 auditions and finally debuting as a singer at the tender age of 15, IU’s meteoric rise meant that she was able to pay off her parents’ debt just a few years later. Now, as one of Korea’s most famous pop stars and K-drama actresses, IU’s life couldn’t be more different than when she was growing up.

The Doom At Your Service actor grew up in poverty, with his mother collecting cardboard boxes off the street to recycle them to make money for the family’s basic needs. He trained as a wrestler and saw his fortunes turn after he tried out music and joined singing competition Superstar K, eventually winning it. These days, he’s charming audiences in K-dramas and enjoying huge popularity and probably riches.

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The Girl’s Day member and Reply 1988 and My Roommate is a Gumiho actress, well-loved for her cutesy aegyo image, grew up in poverty, living with her sister and grandmother in the countryside while her mother worked in a factory.

Meanwhile, Hyeri’s co-star in Reply 1988 Park Bo-gum suffered financial hardship as well. The Love in the Moonlight and Record of Youth good-looker, who’s currently doing his military service, had to file for bankruptcy early on in his career in 2014, thanks to signing on as a co-guarantor for a loan his father took in 2008. When his dad was unable to repay the 30 million won (S$34,800) sum, Park was forced to take on the debt, except that it had ballooned to 800 million won (S$928,000). Thankfully, most of it was written off, and he managed to pay off the debt in full within six months.

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Born Min Yoon-gi in Daegu to a poor family, BTS’ rapper is valued in the millions now, but there was once a time when he was so short of money, he had to choose between eating and taking a bus. If he bought a US$2 bowl of noodles, he would then have to walk home. He struggled to achieve his dream of being a musician, working part-time at a recording studio and writing songs at 13 years old, which he would then sell.

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The 26-year-old actress may be enjoying her moment in the spotlight now, but life wasn’t always easy for the The World of the Married and Nevertheless star. She came to Seoul with precious little cash in order to pursue her acting dream, and worked long hours at a bar to make ends meet. That sacrifice has definitely paid off for the talented So-hee.

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She’s one of South Korea’s most well-known actresses now, but Park and her family struggled with financial troubles when she was young. The Sisyphus: The Myth, The Heirs and Memories of the Alhambra star has said she wanted to be a police officer, after her mother was robbed when she was a kid.

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Born Jung Ji-hoon in Seosan in South Korea, Rain and his family were left in poverty after the 1997 Korean financial crisis, which caused his father to declare bankruptcy and move to Brazil to make money. The family was so poor, Rain said that he once starved for many days as there was nothing to eat at home. His mother, a food seller, sadly passed away from diabetes soon after his debut as an entertainer in 2000, as the family couldn’t afford medicine for her. Today, Rain is one of the richest celebs in Korea, and he and his actress wife Kim Tae-hee are one of K-entertainment’s most powerful couples.

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The 2NE1 pop diva and subsequent solo artiste, born in Busan, had a tough time growing up, as her father’s business went bankrupt when she was eight. They became so poor, she didn’t have money to take the bus, and as the oldest child, Park had to stay home to look after her younger siblings. The family moved to the Philippines to try to restart her father’s business, and she struggled to fit in. She eventually became a successful actress there, but her father controlled her money and wiped out her savings thanks to his gambling addiction. She eventually returned to Korea to debut with 2NE1, one of the biggest girl groups in K-pop history.