Son Hyun-joo

Son Hyun-joo is an actor born on June 24, 1965. He entered television through KBS’s 14th open actor recruitment in 1991, building a career across domestic dramas, crime thrillers and period stories. His roles include Baek Hong-seok in The Chaser, Kang Do-chang in The Good Detective and hospital director Bu Seung-gwon in Doctor X: Mafia in White. ^{[1] [2] [15]}

First Love, My Rosy Life and My Too Perfect Sons provide a useful introduction to Son’s work before his later thrillers. He played Ban Seong-mun in My Rosy Life and Song Jin-pung in My Too Perfect Sons, portraying people defined by relationships with family and neighbours.

These domestic roles offer a different perspective from the powerful officials and men under pressure in his later career. ^[1]

In The Chaser, Son played Baek Hong-seok, a detective and father investigating the truth behind his daughter’s death. The story involves political power, but his character’s personal motivation remains central.

At an SBS red-carpet interview, Son explained that he focused on the daughter rather than the wider conspiracy. This is his own account of how he grounded the character’s emotions. ^{[2] [3]}

He won the Grand Prize at the 2012 SBS Drama Awards for The Chaser. The ceremony took place on December 31, 2012; SBS published its results on January 1, 2013. The award belongs to the 2012 ceremony. ^[2]

In Empire of Gold, Son played Choi Min-jae, a man intent on reaching the top of a powerful business group. SBS presented the casting as a change from his father character in The Chaser.

Watching the roles together offers a contrast between resisting power and seeking it: the tension comes from different motives and relationships. ^[4]

In Hide and Seek, Son played Seong-su in a thriller that turns familiar domestic spaces into sources of danger. His unease also appears in everyday habits.

In an Aju Business Daily interview, Son described suggesting a brush for a hand-washing scene. It is a concrete example of using a prop and repeated action to define a character, rather than relying only on dialogue. ^[5]

In The Chronicles of Evil, Son played Choi Chang-sik, a police chief approaching promotion who conceals his involvement in a death and then has to investigate the case.

Compared with The Chaser, the role reverses the detective’s relationship to the truth. Instead of uncovering it, he fears its discovery. ^[6]

In The Phone, Son played lawyer Go Dong-ho. After his wife’s murder, a call from the day she died gives him a chance to try to save her.

Where Hide and Seek builds danger from familiar spaces, this film uses a phone connection across time. The scenes offer a chance to observe how urgency develops when the other character is not physically present. ^[7]

Ordinary Person is set in the 1980s and follows detective Seong-jin as he becomes entangled in a state-led operation. Son played a man whose wish for an ordinary life meets increasingly difficult choices.

His News1 interview discusses the character alongside his experience as an actor. As in The Chaser, family ties and public power collide within one person’s life. ^[8]

He won Best Actor at the 2017 Moscow International Film Festival for Ordinary Person. Director Kim Bong-han accepted on his behalf at the June 29 ceremony because Son was filming elsewhere.

Speaking to Yonhap after the result, Son credited the crew’s work. This was an individual acting award, distinct from other recognition for the film. ^[9]

Son played Kang Do-chang in The Good Detective and its 2022 second season, alongside Jang Seung-jo as Oh Ji-hyeok. Relationships between investigators are central to the series.

JTBC released a first-shoot interview with Son and the cast for season two. Compared with his isolated or compromised film detectives, this role offers a view of everyday teamwork and the rhythms of working with colleagues. ^{[1] [10]}

In Tracer, Son played In Tae-jun, head of a regional tax office, opposite Im Si-wan’s Hwang Dong-ju. Institutional power and guarded secrets shape their conflict.

Rather than investigating from the margins, In tries to control events from the centre of an organisation. The role offers a useful comparison with Choi Min-jae in Empire of Gold and Bu Seung-gwon in Doctor X. ^[11]

In Your Honor, Son played judge Song Pan-ho, who conceals the truth to protect his son. Kim Myung-min’s Kim Gang-heon presses him while seeking answers.

The character’s legal responsibilities collide with his family loyalties. Compared with the father in The Chaser, the role shows how a similar emotional starting point can lead to very different decisions. ^[12]

In Big Deal, Son played Seok Jin-u, chairman of the Gukbo group. The film follows a struggle over a soju company’s ownership during the financial crisis, with Yoo Hai-jin and Lee Je-hoon playing people with competing interests.

It extends his work on institutional power into a corporate setting. The character should be understood within the film’s fictionalised story rather than treated as a direct biography of a real person. ^[13]

In a 2017 Kukmin Ilbo interview, Son said that choosing acting meant accepting responsibility for the work. He emphasised punctuality and retaining the mindset he had when first learning theatre.

Read alongside his accounts of prop choices in Hide and Seek and emotional focus in The Chaser, the interview offers practical examples of preparation. These are his explanations of working methods, rather than assumptions about his personality based on his characters. ^{[14] [5] [3]}

In Doctor X: Mafia in White, Son plays Bu Seung-gwon, director of a Guseo University Hospital branch. He has compromised with the organisation to keep the hospital afloat while trying to retain his responsibilities as a physician.

Kim Ji-won’s Gye Su-jeong challenges established practices through surgical skill, while Bu has to maintain an institution. Adding Lee Jung-eun’s Jang Hui-suk brings another perspective on patients, contracts and hospital management. Their competing decisions provide a way into the drama without revealing its ending. ^{[15] [16]}

Year	Work	Role
2012	The Chaser	Baek Hong-seok [2]
2013	Empire of Gold	Choi Min-jae [4]
2013	Hide and Seek	Seong-su [5]
2015	The Chronicles of Evil	Choi Chang-sik [6]
2015	The Phone	Go Dong-ho [7]
2017	Ordinary Person	Seong-jin [8]
2020	The Good Detective	Kang Do-chang [1]
2022	The Good Detective 2	Kang Do-chang [10]
2022	Tracer	In Tae-jun [11]
2024	Your Honor	Song Pan-ho [12]
2025	Big Deal	Seok Jin-u [13]
2026	Doctor X: Mafia in White	Bu Seung-gwon [15]