In 1981, the year he turned 19, he joined the troupe Ppuri and made his first stage appearance as the lead in the play Our Town. The next year he entered Dongguk University’s theater and film department. In 1989, he made his screen debut in the film Kuro Arirang.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 28, he appeared in the KBS2 drama Years of Ambition and gained public recognition as Kuchon. That year he won best new actor at the KBS Drama Awards.
In 1992, he played the sixth-grade homeroom teacher in Our Twisted Hero. In 1994, he worked with university junior Han Suk-kyu in MBC’s The Moon of Seoul.
In 1997, he played the prosecutor Ma Dong-pal in No. 3. In 1998, he played the uncle, Gang Chan-gu, in The Quiet Family. In 1999, he won best actor at the Grand Bell Awards as Park Mu-young in Shiri, and at the end of the year appeared in Happy End.
In 2001, he played the small-time gangster Lee Gang-jae in Failan and won his first Blue Dragon best actor award. In 2002, he played the painter Jang Seung-eop in Im Kwon-taek’s Chihwaseon, which was invited to the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2003, he played Oh Dae-su in Oldboy. In May 2004, Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and in July he received the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit from the government.
In 2005, he played Mr. Baek in Lady Vengeance and Kang Tae-sik in Crying Fist. In February 2006, protesting the government’s screen quota cut, he held a one-person protest in front of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Sejong-ro, Seoul, and returned the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit. In 2009, he appeared in Himalaya, Where the Wind Dwells. In 2010, he played the serial killer Jang Gyeong-cheol in I Saw the Devil.
In 2012, he played the semi-gangster Choi Ik-hyeon in Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time and won his third Blue Dragon best actor award. In 2013, he played section chief Kang Hyeong-cheol in New World. In July 2014, The Admiral: Roaring Currents, in which he played Admiral Yi Sun-sin, opened and drew 17.61 million admissions, a new record for a Korean film. That year he also appeared in Luc Besson’s Lucy, going to Hollywood.
In 2015, he won the grand prize in film at the Baeksang Arts Awards for The Admiral: Roaring Currents. That year he played the hunter Cheon Man-deok in The Tiger. In 2017, he appeared in The Mayor and Heart Blackened. In 2019, he made a special appearance as Hong Beom-do in The Battle: Roar to Victory, and in Forbidden Dream he reunited with Han Suk-kyu after 20 years.
In 2022, he played Cha Mu-sik in Disney+’s Casino and appeared in a drama for the first time since 1997, after 25 years. That year he also played Lee Hak-seong, a mathematician who defected from North Korea, in In Our Prime. In 2023, he won the individual Golden Bird Prize at the Seoul International Drama Awards for Casino. In 2024, he played the feng shui master Kim Sang-deok in Exhuma, adding a second 10-million film to his filmography 10 years after The Admiral: Roaring Currents. In 2026, he played Heo Mun-o in Netflix’s Notes from the Last Row, his first Netflix drama. In September that year he played the senior intern Gi-ho in the film The Intern.
Choi Min-sik (born Apr 27, 1962) debuted in the play Our Town in 1981, the year he turned 19, and gained public recognition as Kuchon in KBS2’s Years of Ambition in 1990, the year he turned 28. In 2004, the year he turned 42, Oldboy won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.