HoYeon Jung: How a Model Became Squid Game's Breakout Star [2026]

Korean Actor Profile

July 13, 2026 AINBlogger Editorial 7 min read

HoYeon Jung had appeared in one television drama and spent years as a fashion model before she auditioned for Squid Game. Her performance as Kang Sae-byeok — a North Korean defector competing to win money to free her family — earned her the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, making her the first Korean actress to win in that category. She had fewer than 10 acting credits.

The Netflix Role That Made Her

🎬 Netflix Original

Squid Game (오징어 게임) — 2021

as Kang Sae-byeok / Player 067

Kang Sae-byeok is a North Korean defector who entered the Squid Game to earn enough money to bring her younger brother out of an orphanage and rescue her mother from North Korea. She is guarded, self-sufficient, and deeply suspicious of everyone — a person who has survived by trusting only herself. HoYeon Jung plays her with a coiled physical precision and emotional economy that makes the character's rare moments of vulnerability genuinely affecting. In a show full of memorable characters, Sae-byeok stood out immediately — and the international audience recognized it instantly. Her Instagram following went from 400,000 to 14 million in the weeks following the show's release.

From Runway to Screen

HoYeon Jung competed on Korea's Next Top Model in 2013 (she finished second), and the modeling career that followed was genuinely significant — she walked for Louis Vuitton, appeared on the covers of Vogue Korea, Vogue Japan, and numerous other international publications. She is a Louis Vuitton brand ambassador. This was not a marginal modeling career; she was one of Korea's most recognizable models internationally.

Her acting before Squid Game was minimal — a small role in the 2016 drama Cheer Up! and not much else. She auditioned for Squid Game after seeing the casting call, and was cast as Sae-byeok. That the performance is as controlled and technically accomplished as it is, given her limited acting background, is genuinely surprising. It suggests either extraordinary natural ability or exceptional direction from Hwang Dong-hyuk — probably both.

After Squid Game

The post-Squid Game trajectory has been remarkable in its own right. She appeared in the Apple TV+ series The Sympathizer (2024), based on Viet Thanh Nguyen's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, opposite Robert Downey Jr. — a significant Hollywood role in a prestige production. She signed with UTA (United Talent Agency) and has become one of the most sought-after Korean actresses for international projects.

She has spoken openly about the experience of becoming globally famous overnight — the disorientation, the responsibility, and the determination to build an acting career that can justify the opportunity she was given. Her work in The Sympathizer suggested she has the range to do exactly that.

SAG Award (2022): HoYeon Jung won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Squid Game Season 1 — the first Korean actress to win in that category. She also won Best New Actress at the Critics' Choice Super Awards and became the first Korean actress nominated for a Golden Globe.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Type
2016	Cheer Up!	Minor role	TV Drama
2021	Squid Game	Kang Sae-byeok / Player 067	Netflix Series
2024	The Sympathizer	Ms. Mori	Apple TV+ Series

Why she matters: HoYeon Jung's story is one of the most unlikely breakouts in recent television history — a model with almost no acting experience who delivered a performance good enough to win awards. What she does with the opportunity is the story worth following.

Tags: HoYeon Jung Squid Game Netflix Korean actress Kang Sae-byeok model

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