Will Yun Lee

Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, to Korean parents: mother Jung Ja Lee and father Soo Woong Lee, a taekwondo grandmaster.^[1]

His parents later divorced. He began training in taekwondo at the age of three and spent part of his youth teaching at his father’s school, Lee’s Taekwondo, in Napa, California. In 2013, he re-earned his black belt and documented the process in a three-part video series, Back to Black: The Training of Will Yun Lee, which also featured his father.^[2]

Lee spent his youth moving across the United States and attended 23 schools.^[3]

Lee attended UC Berkeley with a full athletic scholarship to study political science and ethnic studies.^[4]

Lee’s parents divorced when he was four years old, and he spent much of his childhood moving between relatives and family friends before reuniting with his father in Hawaii at age ten.^[5] During this time his father, one of the first taekwondo masters to immigrate to the United States, encouraged him to pursue a professional career, but Lee eventually chose to follow acting instead.^[5] While he initially planned to study law, he decided in his mid-twenties to pursue acting after realizing the limitations of running martial arts schools. Without attending a formal drama program, he created a self-directed training routine, dedicating up to eight hours a day to acting classes, reading plays, watching films, and physical training.^[5]

Lee had supporting roles in high-profile films such as Die Another Day, Torque, The King of Fighters, and Elektra. He has also acted on FX Network's miniseries Thief and ABC Family's miniseries Fallen. He guest starred in Hawaii Five-0 as recurring character Sang Min, and in True Blood as Mr. Gus. He also played Kenuichio Harada in James Mangold's The Wolverine (2013).^[6] In 2018, Lee appeared in the Netflix science fiction series Altered Carbon as the original body of protagonist Takeshi Kovacs.^[7]

Lee provides the voice of Wei Shen, the protagonist in Square Enix's Hong Kong open-world crime game Sleeping Dogs.

In 2002, People named Lee as one of their "50 Most Beautiful People", which quickly led to high-profile roles. In November 2007, he was named one of the 15 "Sexiest Men Alive".^[8]

Lee is among the actors, producers and directors interviewed in Jeff Adachi's 2006 documentary The Slanted Screen, about the representation of Asian and Asian-American men in Hollywood. He was featured in the music video of Mariah Carey's "Boy (I Need You)" as well as Ice Cube's "Real Nigga Roll Call . In February 2025, he was cast in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.^[9]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, opportunities for Asian American actors were limited. Lee has recalled competing with peers such as Daniel Dae Kim, John Cho, and Sung Kang for a narrow range of stereotyped roles, often gangsters or computer experts.^[5] Because Asian actors were rarely called to audition, he created mock auditions for himself to practice and prepare.^[5]

Reflecting on later work, Lee has described his role as Dr. Alex Park on The Good Doctor as a turning point, symbolizing a move away from stereotypes toward more professional and nuanced portrayals of Asian American characters.^[5] He also cited his leading part in Altered Carbon as a rare moment when he experienced being treated as a lead in Hollywood, with large-scale production values and heroic framing typically reserved for white actors.^[5]

In October 2010, Lee married actress Jennifer Birmingham in Shreveport, Louisiana.^[10] Their son, Cash, was born in June 2013.^[11] Cash was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease, a rare disorder of the cerebral blood vessels, at the age of three.^[3]

Since entering his fifties, Lee has emphasized balancing career with family responsibilities. He has noted that he now prioritizes caring for his parents and child, and chooses roles that allow him to tell meaningful stories while maintaining a fulfilling personal life.^[5]