Who is Jang Dong-yoon, the Korean actor starring in 2023 K-drama treats Daily Dose of Sunshine, My Man Is Cupid and Like Flowers in Sand?

He will close out the year with an appearance in the rural sports drama Like Flowers in Sand, which debuts this month.

Jang Dong-yoon in a still from “Daily Dose of Sunshine”. Photo: Netflix

The year has marked something of a comeback for the actor.

Jang was involved in the maligned period horror drama Joseon Exorcist, which was infamously cancelled and pulled off the air early in its 2021 run after claims of historical distortion were levelled against its creators.

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Why we love him

Jang has never been one to sit on the sidelines. In 2015, while studying economics and finance at Hanyang University, he found himself in a situation in Seoul where a convenience store clerk was being threatened by an armed robber.

Maintaining his cool, he managed to figure out a way to get the assailant arrested, an act of bravery for which he received a commendation for heroism from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

Jang Dong-yoon as Prince Chungnyeong in a still from “Joseon Exorcist”, which was abruptly cancelled in 2021.

The incident meant his face was all over the news, and with a face like his, it wasn’t long before entertainment agencies came a-knocking.

A year later he made his TV acting debut in the Naver web drama Women at a Game Company, and also appeared in a music video.

These parts led to his first major role, in the high-school drama Solomon’s Perjury on JTBC in 2017. But it was another high-school show that would truly put him on the map.

Jang Dong-yoon in a still from “My Man Is Cupid”.

The star-making roles

Jang plays Song Dae-hwi, who, despite being a top-ranked student at his school, doesn’t have the funds to pursue his scholastic dreams. Dae-hwi falls out with his best friend, Tae-woon (Kim Jung-hyun), following the death of another friend.

Jang Dong-yoon in a still from “School 2017” (2017).

Next up for Jang was Mr. Sunshine, another major stepping stone in the young actor’s career, the following year.

In this classic K-drama headlined by Lee Byung-hun and Kim Tae-ri, which swiftly became one of the most successful shows of all time, he plays Jun-young, a young nobleman who wants to fight for Korean independence. Jang makes his entrance in episode 16 of the 20-part epic.

The iconic parts

Jang acted alongside Kim So-hyun in the period romance The Tale of Nokdu, the first show produced by the Korean streaming service Wavve. He plays Jeon Nok-du, a man who has to disguise himself as a woman and infiltrate an all-female village to discern the truth about his origins.

Jang Dong-yoon in a still from “The Tale of Nokdu” (2019).

For his next project, Jang appeared in the OCN-produced action-horror series Search. Sharing the screen with Krystal Jung of the K-pop girl group f(x), Jang plays a soldier who battles against a mysterious creature in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea in this military-themed thriller.

Jang’s role in the 2022 film Project Wolf Hunting was a major change of pace for the actor which got him noticed by a completely different fan base: genre film fans.

Although it was not a box office hit, Project Wolf Hunting was hugely successful on the international genre film festival circuit. The film depicts what happens when a gang of vicious prisoners are let loose aboard a boat extraditing them from the Philippines to Korea.

Outrageously gory and a ton of fun, Project Wolf Hunting showed that Jang wasn’t afraid to reinvent himself.

Jang Dong-yoon in a still from “Project Wolf Hunting” (2022).

The unheralded performances

Still in the early stages of his screen career, Jang appeared in the indie drama Beautiful Days. The film was the comeback project of actress Lee Na-young, who hadn’t been seen on screen in five years.

Jang plays a Chinese-Korean youth who travels to Korea to see his mother, played by Lee, who he hasn’t met in 14 years. Although disappointed by what he finds, he slowly starts to learn about her complicated life.

Jang Dong-yoon and Lee Na-young in a still from “Beautiful Days” (2018).

Beautiful Days opened the Busan International Film Festival in 2018, and helped establish Jang’s versatility and art house credentials. He was praised for his mastery of the Yanbian dialect (spoken by Chinese-Koreans who live in northeast China) and was nominated for several Best New Actor of the Year awards.

The same year that Joseon Exorcist made waves for the wrong reasons, Jang quietly took on the lead voice role in the animated film Chun Tae-il: A Flame That Lives On. The movie tells the powerful story of Chun Tae-il, a real-life figure who became a symbol of the bitter fight for labour rights in South Korea in the 1960s.

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Tomorrow’s turns

Later this month, Jang will headline his sixth 2023 production, Like Flowers in Sand, in which he plays a sirreum (traditional Korean wrestling) athlete in the countryside who has lost his way. A childhood friend comes back into his life and inspires him.

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