Jang Hyuk

Jeong Yong-jun (born December 20, 1976), better known as Jang Hyuk, is a South Korean actor.

In 1996, Jeong Hoon-tak, who ran a management company named EBM Production Co., after success elevated Jung Woo-sung and Kim Ji-ho as top star, met Jeong Yong-jun, a 20-year-old young man who was a student at Seoul Institute of the Arts.

He was convinced that the innocence in the face of Jung Yong-joon, which exudes sadness and strange charisma would become a “weapon”.

Jung Hoon-tak pushed Jung Yong-joon into the accommodation of the group god members who were still preparing for their debut.

And started the harsh training.

With Jung, who has his own confidence that “only those who are prepared can succeed,” Jung Yong-joon prepared for a long time.

After Lee Seung-hwan's music video, Jung Yong-joon making his acting debut in 1997 in the television drama Model under his stage name Jang hyuk.

Besides the teen series School (1999) and a minor role in the little-seen film Zzang (The Best), Jang appeared in the music video of "To Mother", the 1999 debut single of popular boyband g.o.d, whom he was housemates with at that time.

Also in 1999, he played the good-hearted yet aggressive Myung-ha in the series Into the Sunlight.

Using the stage name "TJ", he had a brief career as a rapper and acted in several music videos from his rap album TJ Project, which was released in 2000.

In the same year, he starred in Fall in Love with Anchor Beauty, the Chinese remake of 2000 Korean drama All About Eve.

Fall in Love with Anchor Beauty received high ratings in China during its run.

He is best known for his leading roles in the films Volcano High (2001), Windstruck (2004), The Swordsman (2020), The Killer: A Girl Who Deserves to Die (2022), and the television dramas Successful Story of a Bright Girl (2002), Thank You (2007), The Slave Hunters (2010), Deep Rooted Tree (2011), You Are My Destiny (2014), Voice (2017), Money Flower (2017), Wok of Love (2018), My Country: The New Age (2019), Tell Me What You Saw (2020) and Bloody Heart (2022).

Jang Yong-jun spent most of his childhood and adolescence in his birthplace, Busan.

Jang's career first began to take off in 2001, when he was cast in the lead role of the special-effects extravaganza Volcano High with actress Shin Min-a.

His acting in the eccentric role drew praise from fans and critics.

Jang also made a cameo in Japanese drama Ryokiteki na Kanojo, a remake of the 2001 Korean film My Sassy Girl.

After his earlier guesting on star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's talk show, the director of the drama reportedly added new scenes for Jang that were not included in the original script.

Jang then appeared as the love interest in three music videos of Taiwanese singer Elva Hsiao.

In 2002 he continued to make a name for himself, starring in the sleeper hit Jungle Juice, which made the top of the weekly box-office.

His popularity continued to increase when he starred in the hugely popular TV drama Successful Story of a Bright Girl with actress Jang Na-ra.

He also took a role in Public Toilet, the HK-Korea co-production by acclaimed Hong Kong director Fruit Chan which won a Special Mention in the Upstream section of the 2002 Venice Film Festival.

Jang continued to appear in high-profile projects; in 2003, Jang starred alongside Lee Na-young in the comedy Please Teach Me English, by director Kim Sung-su and the following year, he starred opposite Jun Ji-hyun in Kwak Jae-yong's Windstruck.

Although Windstruck was generally not well received in Korea, it went on to beat Shiri and become one of the best-selling Korean films in Japan.

In late 2004, together with fellow actors Song Seung-heon and Han Jae-suk, Jang was found to have illegally avoided his mandatory military service through his and Han's agency SidusHQ.

Amid widespread public condemnation, Jang apologized to his fans, then began to serve his two-year military term.

After his discharge from the military in 2006, Jang made his comeback in the drama series Thank You.

A heartwarming story about a young single mother (played by Gong Hyo-jin) with an HIV-positive daughter and the cynical doctor who enters their lives, Thank You surprisingly became a modest hit, and with it Jang left the stigma of his draft-dodging scandal behind him.

He then signed up for the international movie production Dance of the Dragon (2008), a love story that mixed ballroom dancing with martial arts action and costarred Singaporean actress Fann Wong.

He won the Best Actor award at the inaugural West Hollywood International Film Festival for his role.

More leading roles in TV dramas followed, including Robber (2008) and Tazza (2008) adapted from the gambling manhwa.

In 2009, he appeared in the short film His Concern in the omnibus Five Senses of Eros, the risque thriller Searching for the Elephant, and the melodrama Maybe.

In 2010, he received the best reviews of his career for his leading role as the slave hunter ("chuno") Dae-gil in the hit fusion period drama The Slave Hunters.

His acting coach of 14 years described Jang as being relentless in his analysis of a character.

According to Jang, "It is easy to fail if you don't understand the steps one has to take to be famous."

He won several acting awards, most significantly the Grand Prize ("Daesang") at the KBS Drama Awards, and a Best Actor nomination at the 2011 International Emmy Awards.

Back in Korea, Jang played a fund manager-turned-lawyer in 2011's Midas, also starring Lee Min-jung and Kim Hee-ae.

He next starred in legal thriller The Client (2011) with Ha Jung-woo and Park Hee-soon, saying the film satisfied his wish to portray a more emotionally complex persona.

Playing a man accused of murdering his wife, Jang said he had to find "the right balance" "as someone who can appear at times like a criminal or at other times like an innocent man."

Initially reluctant to sign on to period drama Deep Rooted Tree (2011) because he found the role of low-level royal guard Kang Chae-yoon uninteresting in the original novel, Jang changed his mind upon reading that the character had been dramatized and made richer in the TV script.