Cover ‘A Shop for Killers’ star Kim Hye-jun trades assassins for office romance alongside Cha Woo-min and Kang Hoon in the HBO Max workplace K-drama ‘My Bias, My Boss’ (Photo: tvN)
‘A Shop for Killers’ star Kim Hye-jun trades assassins for office romance alongside Cha Woo-min and Kang Hoon in the HBO Max workplace K-drama ‘My Bias, My Boss’ (Photo: tvN)
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From workplace rom-coms like ‘My Bias, My Boss’ and ‘Filing for Love’ to dark thrillers like ‘Dear X’, here are the best K-dramas to stream on HBO Max right now
K-dramas have become a streaming staple, and HBO Max has built up a particularly varied line-up of Korean series to suit almost every mood. Whether you’re looking for a lighthearted rom-com, an enemies-to-lovers workplace drama, a fantasy series with an unusual premise or a psychological thriller with darker twists, there’s plenty to add to your watchlist.
From the fangirl fantasy of My Bias, My Boss and the unconventional military setting of The Legend of Kitchen Soldier to Kim You-jung’s chilling turn in Dear X and the final chapter of Yumi’s Cells, these are some of the best K-dramas on HBO Max right now. Read on for the Korean dramas worth streaming next, including newer 2026 releases and returning favourites.
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‘My Bias, My Boss’ (2026)
Above ‘A Shop for Killers’ star Kim Hye-jun stars alongside Cha Woo-min and Kang Hoon in ‘My Bias, My Boss’, the workplace rom-com K-drama streaming on HBO Max
My Bias, My Boss, the rom-com K-drama currently streaming on HBO Max, follows devoted fangirl Nam Da-reum (Kim Hye-jun), who lands a job at Appello just to get closer to her idol, K-pop idol-turned-actor Lee Chan (Cha Woo-min)—one of the fashion platform’s co-founders, along with his best friend Kang Ha-gi (Kang Hoon). When she is hired, she is over the moon. But the gig comes with an unexpected complication: a tricky love triangle involving her beloved bias Chan and her workaholic new boss Ha-gi.
Korean drama fans who know Kim Hye-jun from Kingdom and A Shop for Killers will get to see a new, lighter side of the actress here, trading zombies and assassins for office romance and fangirl chaos. As the endearing Da-reum, she is bubbling with comic energy. Cha Woo-min, too, best known for villainous turns in Weak Hero Class 1 and Study Group, plays against type as the charismatic but vulnerable Lee Chan. Meanwhile, Kang Hoon, whose credits include The Red Sleeve, Little Women and A Time Called You, steps into his first major male lead role.
If you’re a sucker for celebrity-meets-fan storylines with a side of romance, My Bias, My Boss makes a strong case for a spot on your HBO Max watchlist—its playful love triangle and cast of actors stepping into refreshingly different roles make for an easy, lighthearted watch.
See more: Top Cha Woo-min K-dramas to add to your watchlist, from ‘Weak Hero Class 1’ to ‘My Bias, My Boss’
‘The Legend of Kitchen Soldier’
Above Park Ji-hoon leads ‘The Legend of Kitchen Soldier’, a K-drama blending military life, fantasy, gaming and food, available on HBO Max
In the military fantasy K-drama The Legend of Kitchen Soldier, Park Ji-hoon, acclaimed star of Weak Hero Class and The King’s Warden, plays Kang Seong-jae, a newly enlisted private who joins the military after the death of his father. With a family background in the food truck industry, he ends up working in the kitchen, where things take a fantastical turn.
One day, a mysterious, game-like hologram called “Cook’s Path” suddenly appears in front of him, assigning him cooking quests and goals. As his culinary skills level up, his increasingly impressive dishes boost his unit’s morale—and even earn him access to higher-ranking officials. With each new mission he unlocks, Seong-jae gets closer to uncovering a web of corruption and cover-ups within the military that all somehow lead back to his father’s death.
The tvN K-drama became an HBO Max global hit, beloved for its unusual genre mashup—balancing fantasy, gaming, mystery, military life and food. Audiences particularly enjoyed the cooking scenes and tasting reactions, which became popular talking points on social media. Meanwhile, Park Ji-hoon is as impressive as ever, delivering a performance that weaves grief and comedy together with ease.
See more: 8 K-drama stars who went from second leads to main leads
‘Dear X’
Above Kim You-jung takes on a darker role as Baek Ah-jin in the psychological thriller ‘Dear X’
Known for sweet, good-girl roles in Love in the Moonlight, 20th Century Girl and My Demon, Kim You-jung breaks from her typical casting to play Baek Ah-jin, a manipulative actress with sociopathic traits in Dear X, the K-drama adaptation of the popular webtoon. Projecting an image of grace and innocence, Ah-jin is celebrated as one of Korea’s top stars. However, her carefully crafted public image conceals a much darker nature: she has no qualms about exploiting people’s weaknesses to get what she wants.
As she claws her way to the top, she treats people around her as pawns, leaving a trail of betrayal in her wake—from Choi Jung-ho (Kim Ji-hoon), the café owner she tricks into killing her abusive father, and Heo In-gang (Hwang In-youp), the unfortunate actor whose downfall she sets in motion, to Kim Jae-oh (Kim Do-hoon), who sacrifices everything to shield her secrets, and even the devoted Yoon Jun-seo (Kim Young-dae), whose lifelong love for her comes at a devastating cost.
For viewers looking for a psychological thriller among the K-dramas on HBO Max, Dear X is a particularly compelling watch. Kim You-jung fully commits to Ah-jin’s moral complexity, anchoring a story that blends psychological suspense, revenge and the ruthless machinery of fame into a gripping study of how far someone will go to reach the top.
‘Our Universe’
Above Playing virtual strangers who must suddenly raise a young baby, Bae In-hyuk and Roh Jeong-eui star in the rom-com K-drama ‘Our Universe’
Our Universe, the tvN rom-com K-drama on HBO Max, tells the story of Seon Tae-hyung (Bae In-hyuk) and Woo Hyun-jin (Roh Jeong-eui), two 20-somethings connected by their siblings’ marriage, whose lives are thrown into chaos when they must suddenly raise their 20-month-old nephew, Woo-ju (Park Yoo-ho), after the boy’s parents die in a car accident.
Forced into cohabitation, Tae-hyung and Hyun-jin settle uneasily into their new normal, juggling work schedules, job interviews, bottle feeding and diaper duty. Tae-hyung, grappling with abandonment issues, prefers keeping to himself; Hyun-jin, meanwhile, is barely holding her own life together, let alone a baby’s. Neither is equipped to raise a child—but with Woo-ju depending on them, they must figure out how to become a family.
Amid its themes of work-life balance, unexpected parenthood and the pressures of building a family from scratch, one thing audiences widely agreed on was Our Universe’s biggest scene-stealer: Park Yoo-ho. The young actor won viewers over every time he appeared on screen, charming them with Woo-ju’s adorable antics and his endearing chemistry with his co-stars, Bae In-hyuk and Roh Jeong-eui.
‘Yumi’s Cells 3’
Above Kim Go-eun returns as Yu-mi alongside Kim Jae-won in ‘Yumi’s Cells 3’, the final season of the beloved rom-com K-drama
The third and final season of the popular K-drama Yumi’s Cells, available for streaming on HBO Max, catches up with Kim Yu-mi (Kim Go-eun) as she embarks on another romance after putting her Love Cell on deep freeze in season two. Now a successful romance web novelist, her Writer Cell has been ruling over her cell village with a near-iron fist, determined to keep Yu-mi from losing her head again over something as trivial as romance.
But with most of her cells lying dormant, Yu-mi is left in a state of ennui. That is, until Shin Soon-rok (Kim Jae-won), her new editorial producer, enters the picture. Soon-rok is handsome, rational and disarmingly blunt—the polar opposite of the emotionally driven Yu-mi. Their first encounters are hardly romantic, but his arrival soon shakes up Yu-mi’s carefully ordered world—and cell village.
As the two navigate their love-hate dynamic, Yumi’s Cells 3 once again brings its signature blend of live-action romance and animated inner-world storytelling to the screen. For fans who have followed Yu-mi since season one, the final chapter offers a more mature take on romance, complete with a new love interest, plenty of animated cell antics and the charming chemistry between Kim Go-eun and Kim Jae-won.
‘Filing for Love’
Above Audits, workplace rivalries and an unexpected romance collide in ‘Filing for Love’, starring Shin Hye-sun and Gong Myung
In Filing for Love, the tvN office rom-com K-drama streaming on HBO Max, star auditor Noh Ki-jun (Gong Myung) has his carefully ordered career at Haemu Group thrown off course when formidable audit chief Joo In-ah (Shin Hye-sun) demotes him from the company’s elite Audit Team 1. Determined to get his position back, Ki-jun starts digging into In-ah’s private life, only to discover that the intimidating executive may not be quite who she seems.
As the pair are forced to work together investigating workplace misconduct, their combative relationship gradually takes a romantic turn. Blending corporate intrigue with enemies-to-lovers chemistry, Filing for Love offers a refreshing spin on the workplace K-drama, with Shin Hye-sun and Gong Myung bringing plenty of friction—and sparks—to the screen.
For fans of romances with a little more bite, Filing for Love is a welcome change from the usual workplace K-drama formula. It’s an easy addition to your HBO Max K-drama watchlist if you like professional rivals who slowly discover there may be more between them than animosity.
‘The Practical Guide to Love’
Above Han Ji-min finds herself caught between Park Sung-hoon and Lee Ki-taek in the modern romantic-comedy K-drama, ‘The Practical Guide to Love’
Career-driven and perpetually single, Lee Ui-yeong (Han Ji-min) decides to stop waiting for love to find her in The Practical Guide to Love, one of the early 2026 K-dramas to stream on HBO Max. A capable hotel purchasing manager whose career is thriving but whose love life is decidedly less successful, Ui-yeong takes dating into her own hands—and soon finds herself caught between two very different men: furniture designer Song Tae-seop (Park Sung-hoon) and aspiring actor Shin Ji-su (Lee Ki-taek).
Tae-seop is the steady, marriage-minded option, while the younger Ji-su brings a more unpredictable spark to Ui-yeong’s life. As she navigates blind dates, mixed signals and the increasingly complicated question of what she actually wants from a relationship, The Practical Guide to Love plays with the idea that romance can be approached like a problem to solve—only for Ui-yeong to discover that compatibility does not always follow a neat formula.
Based on Tari’s Naver webtoon Efficient Dating for Singles, the K-drama offers a grown-up take on the familiar love-triangle set-up. Han Ji-min brings plenty of warmth and relatability to Ui-yeong, while Park Sung-hoon and Lee Ki-taek give her two very different romantic possibilities. If you’re after a modern romantic comedy with real emotional stakes, The Practical Guide to Love is well worth adding to your HBO Max K-drama watchlist.
Whether you’re looking for a new romantic comedy, a workplace K-drama, a fantasy adventure or a darker psychological thriller, there’s no shortage of Korean dramas to watch on HBO Max right now. From the fangirl romance of My Bias, My Boss and the genre-bending The Legend of Kitchen Soldier to Dear X’s twisted take on fame and the emotional final chapter of Yumi’s Cells 3, this line-up offers something for every kind of K-drama fan. Add these titles to your HBO Max watchlist, and you’ll have plenty of Korean dramas to stream for your next binge.
Maggie Adan is a content writer, editor, and strategist with extensive experience across print, digital, and social media publishing. Formerly editor-in-chief at K-Zone Philippines, Summit Books and Content Lab, she has written lifestyle stories covering everything from entertainment and travel to beauty and wellness. A storyteller at heart with a keen editorial eye and a passion for narrative, she contributes to various publications and helps brands create and curate content for their social media platforms.
