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Jaimelynne Toh

We may follow Kim Soo-hyun’s every move since he became a household name thanks to It’s Okay Not to Be Okay and My Love from the Star, but what about before he became the world-famous best-paid actor in K-drama?
From bad hair days to underwear photo shoots, we take a deep dive into the life of the lovable 32-year-old actor before we knew who he was.
5 biggest plot holes in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

He once starred opposite Bae Suzy in a teen drama
In Dream High he played the goofy country bumpkin with bad hair and even worse fashion – a role he nevertheless pulled off perfectly. This was the first time he started to appear on our radar, largely because the drama’s portrayal of the K-pop dream resonated with audiences both locally and across the globe.

He did college properly, embarrassing photos and all
Kim entered the prestigious Chung-ang University in 2009, majoring in theatre. Since his time at university preceded his big on-screen debut, he had time to participate in plenty of student performances – a rarity for most Korean celebs. Unfortunately for him, this resulted in a slew of photos from his past being dredged up by fans. What can we learn from them? Putting it charitably, back in his college days, Kim wasn’t quite as suave as he is now.
What Korean celebrities like Kim Soo-hyun looked like growing up

He once did an underwear shoot
Back in college, he did a photo shoot for a clothing company as a favour to a friend who owned his own brand. Since it was an all-male cast and crew, Kim and his fellow models didn’t have any problem joking around in their undies and posing for a photo. The photos were later uploaded by the owner of the brand to his personal blog, and when they (unsurprisingly) caused a stir, he had to apologise to Kim for his lack of consideration.
K-drama CF Kings: who is Korea’s most bankable brand ambassador?

He came from a broken family
Many may not know that the optimistic actor’s parents were divorced and his father remarried. His father had another daughter, Kim Juna, who is active as a solo singer. Kim once said he considers himself an only child, out of respect for his mother who raised him alone.

How Kim Soo-hyun had fun behind the scenes of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
He once made a controversial statement about marriage
Back in 2013, during a public showcase for his movie Secretly, Greatly, he joked that he’d prefer to get married in his early forties, but still marry a girl 20 years younger than him. Unfortunately the Korean public didn’t love the comment, and he faced a public backlash at the time. Whoops.


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Crazy hair, off-colour comments and some photos he may (or may not) prefer to keep secret – K-drama actor Kim Soo-hyun has a past just like everyone else, so what made him the star he is today?


Crazy hair, off-colour comments and some photos he may (or may not) prefer to keep secret – K-drama actor Kim Soo-hyun was a little more cheeky in his 20s


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