When Life Gives You Tangerines” Choi Dae-hoon Opens Up About Career Struggles and Love for Wife Jang Yoon-seo
On the April 23 episode of tvN’s You Quiz on the Block, actor Choi Dae-hoon shared an emotional look back at his long journey through the entertainment industry and paid a heartfelt tribute to his wife, former 2006 Miss Korea runner-up Jang Yoon-seo.
When asked by host Yoo Jae-suk whether he related more to his characters, Gwan-sik or Sang-gil in “When Life Gives You Tangerines,” Choi recalled a touching memory involving his wife. “I never asked her to compare me to any character, but once while I was driving her, she got a call and told the person, ‘Of course my husband is driving me. He’s like Gwan-sik.’ I never forgot that.”
He reflected on how close he came to giving up. “I think maybe my parents just didn’t give me the DNA to quit. I kept going, even if slowly, like pedaling a bicycle. I’d tell myself, ‘Just one more rotation’.”
When she became pregnant, Choi finally asked for a raise—for the first time in his life. “I asked if I could be paid 300,000 won more. That was the first time I ever asked for more money, because our baby was on the way.”
As a husband and father, Choi admitted he once doubted whether he could even afford children’s books for his daughter. “I saw a book priced at 18,000 won and panicked,” he recalled. “When we got married, I gave my wife only 1 million won (about $702) for living expenses. Later I lied and said it was 1.5 million. She corrected me.” He added, “I told her to wait 12 years.” He explained the number wasn’t random: “I didn’t like clean-cut numbers like 10 years, so I made it 12.”
But now, with tears welling up, he shared, “She says to me often, ‘I’m so happy.’ When I hear that, I get choked up.” Choi also acknowledged the judgment he felt when he married the glamorous Jang Yoon-seo in 2015. “Some people looked at us and thought, ‘That guy?’ I saw it. But I clenched my teeth and told myself, ‘I’ll show them. I can do this.’ I needed to keep that fire alive to survive.”
Now a respected actor and loving father, Choi Dae-hoon has proven just that. And for him, the sweetest success isn’t fame, it’s hearing his wife say she’s truly happy.
