Kim Ji-won

Kim Ji-won is a South Korean actress born on October 19, 1992, in Seoul. She first drew public attention through commercials, including Lollipop advertisements with Big Bang and 2NE1, before building an acting career. Her early screen credits included the 2011 film Romantic Heaven and the sitcom High Kick: Revenge of the Short Legged, where she played Kim Ji-won. In the 2013 television drama The Heirs, she portrayed Rachel Ryu, the wealthy fiancée of Kim Tan, played by Lee Min-ho. Rachel’s confrontations with Cha Eun-sang, played by Park Shin-hye, made the character a conspicuous part of the series’ school rivalry. That role expanded her recognition beyond earlier supporting parts.

Kim then played Yoon Myung-joo in KBS2’s 2016 hit Descendants of the Sun, an army doctor and daughter of a lieutenant general. Her storyline with Sergeant First Class Seo Dae-young, played by Jin Goo, paired military restrictions with a long romance. In 2017, she took a major leading television role in Fight for My Way as Choi Ae-ra, a department store information desk worker who wants to become a television announcer. The drama reunited her with Park Seo-joon, her The Heirs costar, as childhood friends whose relationship changes alongside career setbacks. The role earned her the Excellence Award for an Actress in a Mid-Length Drama at the 2017 KBS Drama Awards.

Kim also starred in tvN’s Arthdal Chronicles (2019), set in the fictional ancient land of Arth. She played Tan-ya, a member of the Wahan tribe who becomes a spiritual figure central to the story’s political struggle. In the 2020 Netflix series Lovestruck in the City, she appeared as Lee Eun-o, a freelance marketer who adopts the identity “Yoon Sun-a” after a painful relationship. Her costar Ji Chang-wook played architect Park Jae-won, whose search for Sun-a structures the series. In My Liberation Notes (2022), written by Park Hae-young, Kim was Yeom Mi-jeong, the quiet youngest sibling in a family living in Sanpo Village and commuting to Seoul.

The drama’s portrayal of Mi-jeong’s wish to be “liberated” from an exhausting routine became one of Kim’s most discussed performances. In 2024, she starred opposite Kim Soo-hyun in Queen of Tears as Hong Hae-in, the formidable chief executive of Queens Department Store and heiress of Queens Group. The tvN series follows Hae-in’s marriage crisis with Baek Hyun-woo, a lawyer from Yongduri. Its plot later includes Hae-in’s diagnosis of a rare brain tumor and the couple’s attempt to rebuild their relationship. Queen of Tears became tvN’s top rated drama in Korean cable television history, surpassing Crash Landing on You in 2024.