Choi Dae-hoon is everywhere, from ‘The Remarried Empress’ to ‘Agent Kim Reactivated’

Choi Dae-hoon also makes a special appearance in 100 Days of Deception, tvN’s period spy romance set in 1930s Gyeongseong and available on Netflix. He plays a pawnbroker who regularly does business with Lee Ga-gyeong (Kim You-jung), the city’s skilled pickpocket, buying the goods she lifts from unsuspecting victims. Though his screen time is limited to a handful of episodes, he brings a touch of humour to a story that soon takes a more dangerous turn as Ga-gyeong becomes involved with the Korean independence movement.

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In Netflix’s romantic comedy Our Sticky Love, starring Jung Hae-in and Ha Young, Choi Dae-hoon makes a brief appearance as Boo Oh-seong, a doctor at the rural hospital where Go Eun-sae (Ha Young) wakes up with no idea who she is. An anti-corruption prosecutor who was left with amnesia following a violent encounter with gang members, Eun-sae must piece together her past while navigating an increasingly bewildering situation. Choi Dae-hoon makes the most of his limited screen time in the K-drama, delighting viewers with another memorable cameo.

Unlike his brief appearances in 100 Days of Deception and Our Sticky Love, Choi Dae-hoon takes on one of the principal roles in SBS’s revenge action thriller Agent Kim Reactivated, starring alongside So Ji-sub and Yoon Kyung-ho. Adapted from the popular Naver webtoon Manager Kim, the hit K-drama, available to stream on Netflix, follows Manager Kim (So Ji-sub), a seemingly ordinary father who returns to his former life as an elite secret agent when his daughter goes missing. 

Choi Dae-hoon plays Sung Han-soo, Kim’s longtime friend and former fellow agent—a one-time Olympic taekwondo gold medallist who now leads a much quieter life teaching children at a local taekwondo academy. But beneath Han-soo’s approachable demeanour lies a formidable skill set that he taps into when Kim embarks on his desperate search for his daughter, drawing him back into the action.

In Netflix’s original K-drama The Wonderfools, Choi Dae-hoon plays Son Gyeong-hun, Haeseong City’s resident gadfly and a fixture at City Hall, where he files complaints about anything and everything. He is often roped into the schemes of his neighbours Eun Chae-ni (Park Eun-bin), nicknamed Haeseong’s local “train wreck”, and Kang Ro-bin (Im Seong-jae), its biggest pushover.

When one of Chae-ni’s harebrained ideas goes awry, the trio cross paths with Lee Un-jeong (Cha Eun-woo), a civil servant with secrets of his own, and emerge with extraordinary abilities. Chae-ni teleports when her heart rate spikes, Ro-bin gains superhuman strength when his feelings are hurt and Gyeong-hun sticks to whatever he touches whenever he lies. Their “superpowers” turn out to be more nuisance than gift and, even more troubling, put them in the crosshairs of a doomsday cult.

Playing Bu Sang-gil in Netflix’s multigenerational family drama When Life Gives You Tangerines was arguably Choi Dae-hoon’s most acclaimed performance, earning him the Best Supporting Actor (Television) award at the 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards. Sang-gil is a self-appointed rival to Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum and Park Hae-joon), forever one step behind him, whether it’s for Oh Ae-sun’s (IU and Moon So-ri) attention or the townspeople’s respect.

As the story moves through different stages of the characters’ lives, Park Hae-joon and Moon So-ri take over from Park Bo-gum and IU as the older Gwan-sik and Ae-sun. Choi Dae-hoon, however, portrays Sang-gil throughout the series, carrying his insecurities and occasional flashes of vulnerability across the decades. For all his bluster and his clumsy attempts to keep pace with Gwan-sik, he is a more sympathetic man than he first appears, and Choi Dae-hoon gives him enough humanity to make him a character audiences eventually care for.

From a harried royal aide and a truth-challenged superhero to a former secret agent and a village rival who became an unlikely audience favourite, Choi Dae-hoon has made a habit of giving even supporting characters plenty of personality.

His recent K-dramas also reveal just how comfortably he moves between comedy, romance, action and period drama. Whether you first spotted him in When Life Gives You Tangerines or recognised him in one of his many appearances this year, there is a good chance you’ll be seeing more of the actor on your screen.

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