The Real Reason Korea Is Obsessed With Actor Jo Han-gyeol Right Now

There is a moment in every emerging actor's career when something clicks — when a performance moves from promising to undeniable. For Jo Han-gyeol, 23, that moment appears to have arrived with Undercover Miss Hong (언더커버 미쓰홍), a retro office comedy that aired on tvN and drew 13 percent viewership ratings before concluding its run earlier this year. The drama introduced Jo to the widest audience he has ever reached, and the reception has been enthusiastic enough to change the trajectory of his still-young career.

In a recent interview ahead of the show's finale, Jo Han-gyeol spoke at length about his experience on the drama, the comparisons to BTS member Jin that have followed him across social media, and the personal journey that brought him to acting — a journey that began not on a stage but on a baseball field.

The Baseball Dream That Became Something Else

Jo Han-gyeol was not always an actor. Growing up, his ambition was to become a professional baseball player. He trained seriously enough to be on track as a teenager, but an injury derailed that path before it could fully develop. What happened next was both a setback and, in retrospect, a gift.

"When I was playing baseball, I was eating a lot more than normal because of the training demands," Jo explained. After stepping away from the sport at 19, he returned to ordinary eating habits and his body responded accordingly. "In six months, I naturally lost about 15 kilograms just by going back to regular meals. My base metabolic rate was high, so it happened on its own."

The weight loss was a side effect of a life change, but it marked the beginning of a new chapter. Jo had harbored a secondary interest in acting since childhood — he originally dreamed of becoming a child actor before baseball took over — and with one path closed, he began to pursue the other seriously. He debuted in 2020 with the web drama I'll Stop at Planet Earth, and has since built a steady filmography through projects including SBS's Gwigung, Try: We Are the Miracle, and JTBC's My Youth.

Breaking Through in Undercover Miss Hong

With Undercover Miss Hong, Jo landed a role significantly larger than anything he had taken on before. The drama, set against the backdrop of the late 1990s financial crisis in South Korea, follows a 30-something elite financial investigator (played by Park Shin-hye) who goes undercover as a 20-year-old junior employee at a suspicious securities firm. Jo plays Oh A-ram (알벗 오), the chairman's grandson and head of a largely symbolic crisis management division — a character who first appears as an aimless, silver-spoon layabout before revealing himself as something considerably more capable.

The role required Jo to navigate a sustained dramatic arc across 16 episodes, which is unusual for a performer still in his early twenties with a relatively limited stage resume. He won the part through an open audition — "My hands and feet were shaking the whole time, I was so nervous" — and spent the weeks leading up to filming researching the era he would be inhabiting. He studied films from the late 1990s, consulted with his parents about the gold-collection drive that swept South Korea during the IMF crisis, and watched archival interviews to calibrate the visual language of the period.

The result was a performance that impressed both critics and viewers. The drama's 13 percent ratings placed it among the stronger-performing tvN dramas of the year, and Jo Han-gyeol's portrayal of a character who uses apparent fecklessness as a kind of cover — while quietly investigating his uncle's suspicious death and leading a covert network of financial insiders — earned him recognition as one of the drama's standout elements.

The BTS Jin Comparisons

Alongside the career milestone came an unusual form of public attention: widespread fan observation that Jo Han-gyeol's appearance resembles that of BTS member Jin, one of the most internationally recognized faces in contemporary Korean entertainment.

Asked about the comparisons, Jo's response was both gracious and genuine. "When people say I resemble Jin sunbaenim, I feel genuinely honored and moved. He is someone who has brought pride to South Korea. It is the greatest compliment." He added with characteristic self-awareness that he finds the comparisons a little embarrassing when he comes across them online, but that the feeling of pride outweighs the self-consciousness.

The observation has circulated widely enough to give Jo a secondary identity in public discourse — the actor who looks like Jin — which is, for a 23-year-old still establishing himself, an unusual but not entirely unwelcome form of visibility. For fans already drawn to his work in Undercover Miss Hong, the comparison serves as a useful entry point; for BTS fans encountering Jo for the first time, it has sparked curiosity about his acting career.

Life Before the Spotlight and Ambitions Ahead

Away from the camera, Jo Han-gyeol comes across as someone who has had to be self-sufficient for a while. He has lived alone since he was 18, which has made him, by his own account, reasonably handy. "I've been on my own for about five years now. Cleaning is just part of the routine. When there's no one to help you, you learn to manage." He cooks as well — eggs and fried rice are favorites — and says he exercises regularly: running, gym work, and occasional meditation.

The first editorial photo shoot of his career, completed earlier this year, left a strong impression. "It was genuinely fun. The styling was beautiful and I was really satisfied." He also confessed, with a laugh, that the shoot introduced him to contact lenses for the first time in his life. "They were so uncomfortable. I don't think I'll be wearing them again. I want to just live with my own eyes."

In terms of what comes next, Jo Han-gyeol's ambitions extend beyond drama. He has expressed clear interest in variety programming, naming specific shows — Amazing Saturday, Knowing Bros, and I Live Alone — as programs he would genuinely enjoy appearing on. He would also like to host a music program, citing his enjoyment of K-pop as a reason he believes he could do the job well. "If the opportunity comes, I don't want to miss it."

A Career Just Getting Started

What is perhaps most striking about Jo Han-gyeol's current moment is how young he still is within it. At 23, he has already appeared in multiple television dramas, built a fanbase drawn to his distinctive combination of visual appeal and genuine acting range, and completed a breakout role in a well-regarded network drama. By the standards of Korean entertainment, the trajectory is promising.

He is clear-eyed about the path ahead. "I am endlessly grateful, and with that gratitude comes the feeling that I need to work even harder and become a better person." The sense of ambition is matched by an apparent awareness of where he started: a 19-year-old who gave up one dream, found another, and has spent the intervening years building toward the moment that Undercover Miss Hong provided.

The show may have ended, but for Jo Han-gyeol, the run is just beginning. With talk of variety appearances, potential film roles, and a fanbase still growing from his drama exposure, 2026 looks like the year that "the actor who looks like Jin" becomes the actor people simply know by name.