Before finding success through the small screen, South Korean actor Lee Jun-young struggled during his time as a K-pop idol.
The 29-year-old — a former member of the group U-Kiss — recently went on comedian Yoo Jae-suk’s talk show You Quiz on the Block, where he promoted his new drama Reborn Rookie and looked back on his showbiz career.
He shared that he failed numerous idol auditions and thought it “wasn’t meant to be” until he was encouraged to audition for U-Kiss. The group debuted in 2008 and Jun-young joined the line-up in 2014 at the age of 18.
However, the difficulties didn’t end there.
“When I watched major awards shows, my friends were receiving applause on stage,” he said. “Even though we were in the same profession, I wondered why I was not in that position.”
With his family still in debt at the time, Jun-young said he decided not to dwell on his hardships and “take action”. He took up a part-time job at a convenience store where he worked the night shifts just to earn enough for his living expenses.
During one of his shifts, his manager (presumably for his K-pop activities) came to the store to buy cigarettes.
“I was so embarrassed that I couldn’t say a word and just burst into tears. I was ashamed because it was a side of myself I never wanted anyone to see,” he recalled.
“After he’d taken me home, he told me he’d cried too.”
Failing 100 auditions as an actor
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Later on, Jun-young studied acting on his own. He shared that he failed 100 auditions but kept going.
“Back then, the prejudice against actors who were former idols was far worse than it is now,” he remarked, adding that he had even been told to not cause trouble and go home.
“I worried every day, ‘How am I going to face the set tomorrow?'” he said.
“But I was prepared to handle whatever criticism I might hear. I thought that if I wanted to avoid hearing such comments, I had to do even better.”
He said he “gritted [his] teeth and persevered”: “My only thought was that, no matter how hard it got, I mustn’t give up and had to see it through to the end.”
Jun-young landed his first big role in the 2017 series Avengers Social Club. Now a rising actor, he has gained recognition for his varying roles in the dramas D.P. (2021), The Impossible Heir (2024), When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025) and Weak Hero Class 2 (2025).
Last year, he clinched the Popularity Award and Excellence Award, Actor in a Miniseries for Pump Up the Healthy Love (2025) at KBS Drama Awards. He also won Best Couple Award with his co-star, Apink’s Eunji.
He will be enlisting for his mandatory military service on July 21, with two shows to be released during his hiatus. The musical drama Four Hands, Two Sonatas will debut in August and he also made a special appearance in the drama Our Sticky Love, also to be released next month.
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