The year he turned 26, he debuted in the play Heotang. That year he also had a minor role in the film The Adventures of Mrs. Park. In 1998, he played a taxi driver in Jang Jin’s The Happenings. In 2000, he began using the stage name Jung Jae-young with A Terrible Day.
In 2001, he played the killer Jae-young in Guns & Talks. In a pre-release article, Kukmin Ilbo introduced him as a somewhat unfamiliar face. In 2002, he played Dok-bul in Ryoo Seung-wan’s No Blood No Tears.
The breakthrough yearThe year he turned 33, he played Han Sang-pil, leader of Team 1 in Unit 684, in Silmido, and Newsis writes that the film earned him the title of Korea’s first “10-million actor.”
In 2004, he took his first lead role in Someone Special, and at the end of the year he won Best Supporting Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards for Silmido. In 2005, he played Rhee Soo-hwa in Welcome to Dongmakgol. In 2007, he took the lead in Going by the Book. In 2008, he reunited with Sol Kyung-gu after five years in Public Enemy Returns. In 2009, he appeared with Jung Ryeo-won in Castaway on the Moon. In 2010, he won Best Leading Actor at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and Best Actor at the Buil Film Awards for Moss.
In 2011, he appeared with Jeon Do-yeon in Countdown. In 2012, he appeared in Confession of Murder, his 30th feature film. In 2013, he appeared in Hong Sang-soo’s Our Sunhi. In 2014, Broken opened.
In 2015, he began his first drama, Assembly, 19 years after his debut, and won Best Actor at the Locarno Film Festival for Hong Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then.
In 2017, he appeared in Hong Sang-soo’s On the Beach at Night Alone. In 2018, he appeared in the MBC drama Partners for Justice and won the Excellence Award at that year’s MBC Drama Awards. In 2019, he played Joon-gul in The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale and returned in Partners for Justice 2.
In 2021, he appeared in the MBC drama On the Verge of Insanity. In 2023, he played Chen Lin in Noryang: Deadly Sea. In 2024, he made a special appearance in Revolver. In 2025, he began filming Sedae Yugam.
Jung Jae-young (born Nov 21, 1970) debuted in 1996, the year he turned 26, in the play Heotang, and became known when Silmido opened on Dec 24, 2003, the year he turned 33. In 2015, the year he turned 45, he won Best Actor at the Locarno Film Festival.
Ages are by calendar year (the year minus the birth year), birthdays aside.