Cover Who says K-drama heartthrobs always have to be clean-cut? (Photo: IMDB)
Who says K-drama heartthrobs always have to be clean-cut? (Photo: IMDB)
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These handsome K-drama heartthrobs make a surprisingly compelling case for facial hair
Few beauty standards are as rigorously maintained as the K-drama leading man’s face. Glass skin? Naturally. An impossibly sharp jawline? Practically a contractual obligation. Hair that somehow survives a rainstorm, a fight and an emotional breakdown without moving an inch? Par for the course.
Facial hair, however, is another matter.
For an industry that has perfected the immaculate male lead, a little stubble can feel almost rebellious. Give a familiar heartthrob a moustache, and suddenly he has a mysterious past. Add a full beard, and he looks like he has been fighting wars, hiding secrets or living somewhere without reliable access to a dermatologist.
And yet, when the razor takes a holiday, the results can be very, very good.
From period warriors to spies and noir antiheroes, these are the K-drama heartthrobs who made a convincing case for putting down the electric razor.
In case you missed it: The 190 cm club: K-drama actors who tower over the rest
1. Hyun Bin in ‘The Point Men’ (2023)
Above Captain Ri would like a word with Park Dae-sik about his grooming routine
The look: full beard, moustache and weathered styling
Hyun Bin has spent much of his career making the clean-cut look seem like a professional qualification. One of the most enduring K-drama heartthrobs ever, Hyun Bin likes keeping his complexion clean for TV. His Captain Ri in Crash Landing on You (2019) had the immaculate uniform, the impeccable hair and the sort of jawline that could probably be used to measure military equipment. In movies, though, Hyun Bin gives the razor a rest. He had a faint moustache in The Negotiation (2018), but The Point Men is where his facial hair made a massive difference.
For the 2023 action film, Hyun Bin played Park Dae-sik, an NIS agent with expertise in the Middle East who is drawn into a mission to rescue Korean hostages held in Afghanistan. The production gave him a noticeably rougher appearance, complete with a beard and slicked-back hair.
It is a small styling change on paper. In practice, it transforms him from “high-ranking officer who has moisturised this morning” into “man who has not slept properly since 2009”.
The beard works because it doesn’t erase Hyun Bin’s polish. It simply adds some mileage to it. Suddenly, the famously neat leading man looks as though he has spent a considerable amount of time somewhere considerably less interested in skincare.
Captain Ri could never.
2. Lee Byung-hun in ‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird’ (2008)
Above A thin moustache, a little chin stubble and the general energy of a man who absolutely should not be trusted with a loaded gun
The look: thin moustache, chin stubble and an aggressively good leather-clad Western look
Lee Byung-hun’s Park Chang-yi is not exactly the clean-cut leading man K-drama audiences are used to. In The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Kim Jee-woon’s stylish Korean Western, he plays the cold-blooded hitman known as The Bad, chasing a treasure map through 1930s Manchuria alongside Song Kang-ho’s thief and Jung Woo-sung’s bounty hunter.
The facial hair is relatively modest. One of industry’s most reliable K-drama heartthrobs sports a thin moustache and chin stubble rather than a lumberjack situation. However, Chang-yi’s long fringe, black clothes and permanently murderous expression completely change the equation. Lee Byung-hun looks less like a polished leading man and more like someone who might shoot you because you looked at him for half a second too long.
3. Kim Nam-gil in ‘Queen Seondeok’ (2009)
Above Kim Nam-gil’s Bidam made a convincing case for the ancient Silla court’s version of a five-o’clock shadow
The look: dark, period-appropriate stubble
Before Kim Nam-gil became one of Korean television’s most recognisable action-comedy leads, he made a major impression as Bidam in Queen Seondeok. The character’s facial hair suits the role’s rougher edges, particularly as Bidam moves through the political and military turmoil surrounding the Silla court.
Plenty is going on with Bidam beyond the grooming: he is unpredictable, ambitious and emotionally complicated, with Kim Nam-gil’s performance helping turn the character into one of the drama’s breakout figures. The stubble completes the look—a useful reminder that, in a genre where male characters can spend an entire historical drama looking remarkably freshly moisturised, a little scruff goes a surprisingly long way.
4. Jang Hyuk in ‘The Slave Hunters’ (2010) and ‘My Country: The New Age’ (2019)
Above Jang Hyuk confirms that sometimes all a period action hero needs is a little scruff and several extremely urgent problems
The look: scruffy, period-perfect facial hair
Jang Hyuk has never needed much help looking intense, but The Slave Hunters gave him a suitably weathered version of that intensity. As Dae-gil, the former nobleman turned slave hunter, he spends much of the drama looking rough around the edges, with scruff that fits the character’s life on the road.
He returned to a similarly rugged period look in My Country: The New Age, playing Yi Bang-won amid the political upheaval surrounding the founding of Joseon. Neither performance requires the sort of spectacular beard transformation that would make the razor nervous, but the facial hair does what good screen grooming should: it belongs to the character rather than calling attention to itself.
5. Byun Yo-han in ‘Mr Sunshine’ (2018)
Above Byun Yo-han had the sort of facial hair that looks as though it owns a pocket watch and has strong opinions about the empire
The look: a beautifully groomed period beard and moustache
Most men grow facial hair and look rougher. Byun Yo-han somehow managed to grow a moustache and look more elegant.
In Mr Sunshine, Byun plays Kim Hui-seong, a wealthy Joseon aristocrat who returns home after studying in Japan and becomes engaged to Go Ae-shin, played by Kim Tae-ri. Production stills introduced him with carefully groomed facial hair and the kind of wardrobe that suggested his character had never encountered an outfit he could not accessorise.
The look suits Hui-seong because he is not the conventional brooding warrior. He is sophisticated, funny and deeply complicated, with an elegant exterior that conceals a more conflicted interior. Compared to other K-drama heartthrobs on this list, the moustache does something rather wonderful to Byun. Instead of making him look tougher, it makes him look like the sort of man who would have strong opinions about tailoring. Facial hair, but make it bespoke.
6. Ji Chang-wook in ‘The Scandal’ (2026)
Above According to Ji Chang-wook, a Joseon playboy can have more than one look, including a little facial hair.
The look: moustache, stubble and varying degrees of facial hair
Ji Chang-wook’s Jo Won is a Joseon nobleman with a reputation for romantic conquests, but The Scandal deliberately avoids giving him the permanently immaculate look of conventional K-drama heartthrobs. The Netflix series, inspired by Untold Scandal (2003), follows Jo Won as he becomes involved in a dangerous wager with Lady Cho (Son Ye-jin), drawing the young widow Hui-yeon (Nana) into their game of seduction and deception.
The facial hair wasn’t accidental, either. Ji Chang-wook revealed that The Scandal used different stages of facial hair to reflect Jo Won's development, deliberately moving away from the permanently polished look of a conventional romantic hero. When the character needed to appear more playful, for instance, the styling included a small goatee; the grooming became part of the way the production distinguished the different sides of Jo Won rather than simply making him look handsome.
And that is a rather fun departure from the usual K-drama grooming rulebook: give Ji Chang-wook some facial hair and suddenly the nation’s favourite romantic lead looks like a Joseon aristocrat who has been getting into trouble for centuries.
See more: Love ‘The Scandal’? 10 Korean shows and movies to watch if you love ‘Dangerous Liaisons’
7. Lee Dong-wook in ‘The Fugitive of Joseon’ (2013)
Above Lee Dong-wook in ‘The Fugitive of Joseon’ is proof that even a moustache can be pretty in Korea
The look: sculpted moustache and goatee
Lee Dong-wook presents a particularly interesting case because the actor is already blessed with the sort of features that K-dramas usually put on a clean-shaven pedestal. So, when he appears in period facial hair, the effect isn't rugged so much as aristocratic.
In The Fugitive of Joseon, Lee plays Choi Won, a royal physician who becomes a fugitive after being caught up in a plot against the king. He is also a devoted single father desperate to find a cure for his seriously ill daughter.
The period styling gives Lee’s usually immaculate face a little more authority; the moustache and goatee frame his features more intently.
This raises an important question: why does Lee Dong-wook somehow look as though he was born knowing how to grow a perfectly symmetrical moustache?
8. Lee Je-hoon in ‘Anarchist from Colony’ (2017)
Above Thanks to some facial hair, the clean-cut Lee Je-hoon we know has left the chat
The look: long hair, facial hair and a deliberately roughened appearance
Lee Je-hoon’s transformation for Anarchist from Colony was not a case of adding a little stubble and calling it a day.
For the 2017 film, he played Park Yeol, a Korean independence activist during the Japanese colonial period. Promotional material drew immediate attention to the actor’s dramatically altered appearance, including longer hair, tanned skin and facial hair that made him almost unrecognisable from his usual screen image.
And this is where the facial hair actually becomes part of the character rather than simply a handsome-man accessory. The transformation strips away the polished quality audiences associated with Lee Je-hoon and replaces it with something more raw and lived-in.
It is also a useful reminder that facial hair can change the perceived age and energy of an actor remarkably quickly.
Lee Je-hoon grows a beard and suddenly looks like he has opinions about the government. To be fair, in this film, he does.
See more: 11 Gothic noir K-dramas that will haunt you long after the ending
9. So Ji-sub in ‘Mercy for None’ (2025)
Above So Ji-sub’s stubble says he has bigger things to worry about than making a trip to the barber
The look: stubble, hard-boiled styling and a face that has clearly had a very long week
In Netflix’s Mercy for None, So Ji-sub plays Nam Gi-jun, a former gangster who returns to Seoul’s criminal underworld after the mysterious death of his younger brother. The noir action series follows his search for answers and revenge as he becomes entangled with the gangs he once left behind.
The facial hair here is stubble rather than a full beard, which works better for the character. Gi-jun is not styled as a wilderness hermit; he looks like a man who has spent years outside the respectable world and has little interest in polishing himself up for anyone. Add the dark clothes, bruises and permanent expression of someone contemplating several extremely violent solutions, and the effect is suitably hard-boiled.
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Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila and currently a marketing content specialist, she still dabbles in entertainment, beauty and dining coverage. She was the former managing editor of Esquire Philippines and was the food editor at SPOT.ph. She also edited several best-selling books about food.
She now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
