Squid Game actor Lee Jung-jae’s transformation over the years, from 90s heartthrob to Netflix

Squid Game actor Lee Jung-jae, who plays the main character Seong Gi-hun, has undergone quite the transformation over his career, going from a 90s heartthrob with rippling abs to a 52-year-old man with age-defying features.

Most of us were first introduced to the talent that is Lee Jung-jae in Netflix’s Squid Game season one. Since then, he’s appeared in other Western projects such as The Acolyte. But the actor has been in the public eye since 1993 with his first TV show, Dinosaur Teacher, and he’s changed a lot over the years.

Let’s take a walk back through time and look at some undeniably smoking pics.

People can’t get over Lee Jung-jae in the 90s

young lee jung jae in the 90s pic.twitter.com/Ww3zKrhvYA

— Affinity Magazine (@TheAffinityMag) October 25, 2021

Since the start of Squid Game season two, Twitter and Reddit have been flooded with images of Lee Jung-jae from the 1990s. This doesn’t require much explaining, after all, just use your eyes. Around this time the 20-something-year-old was starring in lead roles in Sandglass, An Affair, Father vs. Son, and City of the Rising Sun.

Reacting to the above pictures, one person wrote: “Ummmmmmm excuse me. Where did this man come from.”

“Gi Hun? More like Gi Hunk,” another wrote, while a third added, “I didn’t know he was pretty. He has a ruggedly handsome look to him.”

Like many actors, he had his Twink-era

In the earliest days of his career, Lee Jung-jae gave Troye Sivan a run for his money with a twink-ish aesthetic that is quite the departure from the gritty middle-aged man we have all come to love.

He hit 30 in the early 2000s

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By 2002, when he was starring in Over the Rainbow, Lee Jung-jae had ditched the dark curtains for a shorter haircut. He soon went on to star in Oh! Brothers, Typhoon, and The Accidental Gangster and the Mistaken Courtesan. Though one person on TikTok said the actor from 2005 was the “Korean Leonardo DiCaprio” we all know that Leo could never. Just remember, he likes dating 25-year-olds, not looking like one.

I think my favourite Lee Jung-jae era was the 2010s

By 2013, when Lee Jung-jae was rocking 41, he was serving ageless DILF like no other. The body was on point, those eyes tell a thousand stories, and while I know the tattoos were for his role in Big Match, they made my Monday morning brighter. Seriously, Patrick Dempsey who?

Reacting to this era with the thirst you’d expect from Twitter, one person said: “Handsome in every decade, also super stylish.”

He’s changed a lot since Squid Game season one

Squid Game’s Seong Gi-hun went through massive character development between seasons one and two, and part of that was having him physically appear different. Gone was the bright-eyed and glowing Gi-hun from season one, with season two showing him more serious, darker, and without those bouncy black tresses.

Regardless, Lee Jung-jae is still serving face in 2024.

Squid Game is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Featured image credit: Hourglass/Netflix