Choi Min-sik (최민식) is a South Korean actor born on April 27, 1962, in Seoul. Active in theater, film, and television, he is considered one of the leading figures in South Korean cinema.
He began his film career in the late 1980s and gradually began to make a name for himself with Our Disfigured Hero (1992), No. 3 (1997) and The Quiet Family (1998). In 1999, her role as Park Mu-young in Shiri brings him significant recognition. He continues with Happy Ending (1999), Failan (2001) and Intoxicated by women and painting (2002).
His career took on an international dimension in 2003 thanks to his portrayal of Oh Dae-su in Old Boy by Park Chan-wook. This performance earned him several awards, including at the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Baeksang Arts Awards. He reunited with Park Chan-wook in Lady Vengeance (2005) and also plays a struggling boxer in Crying Fist that same year.
In 2010, he played the serial killer Jang Kyung-chul in I Met the Devil. He then appears in Nameless Gangster (2012), New World (2013) and The Admiral: Roaring Currents (2014), in which he plays Admiral Yi Sun-sin. That same year, he played Mr. Jang in the French film Lucy by Luc Besson.
He continued his film career with The Tiger: An Old Hunter’s Tale (2015), The Mayor (2017), Heart Blackened (2017) and Forbidden Dream (2019).
After a long hiatus from television series, he plays the lead role of Cha Moo-sik in Casino (2022) and then Big Bet Season 2 (2023). In 2024, he plays feng shui expert Kim Sang-deok in Exhuma. In 2025, he appears in No other choice. In 2026, he played the lead role of Heo Mun-o in The Boy in the Back Row and Gi-ho's in the movie Intern.
