The year she turned 16, she won the grand prize at the Miss Binggrae pageant. In 2005, she appeared as a guest on the MBC sitcom Nonstop 5 and became a regular from late June. It was her first TV appearance.
In 2006, her work in the film Ad-lib Night put her among the winners announced for best new actress at the Korean Association of Film Critics Awards. In 2007, she played the lead in the KBS daily drama Heaven & Earth, whose first episode drew a rating of 27.3%. In 2008, she appeared in her first period drama, SBS’s Iljimae.
The breakthrough yearThe year she turned 22, she became known through SBS’s Brilliant Legacy. Ratings topped 40% during its run, and OSEN wrote that the drama made Han Hyo-joo and Lee Seung-gi stars.
In 2010, she shared the Grand Prize at the MBC year-end drama awards with Kim Nam-joo for Dong Yi. Yonhap News Agency reported that she was the youngest Grand Prize winner on record at the time. In 2011, she appeared with So Ji-sub in the film Always, which opened the Busan International Film Festival. In 2012, Masquerade passed 10 million admissions in 38 days, and Love 911 was released in December.
The year she turned 26, she won best actress for Cold Eyes at both the Buil Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards. In 2015, the film The Beauty Inside was released. In 2016, she starred opposite Lee Jong-suk in MBC’s W.
In 2018, the films Golden Slumber and Illang: The Wolf Brigade were released one after the other. In 2021, tvN’s Happiness began. In 2022, she won the Popular Star Award for Happiness at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards.
The year she turned 36, Disney+’s Moving was released. In 2024, she began filming Netflix’s Romantics Anonymous with the Japanese actor Shun Oguri. In 2025, she served on the competition jury of the Busan International Film Festival, and Romantics Anonymous was released on Netflix. In 2026, she donated 50 million won to the international aid group JTS.
Han Hyo-joo (born Feb 22, 1987) debuted by winning the Miss Binggrae pageant grand prize in 2003, the year she turned 16, and became known through SBS’s Brilliant Legacy, which began airing on Apr 25, 2009, the year she turned 22. In 2010, the year she turned 23, she won the Grand Prize at the MBC Drama Awards.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.