Where others opted for football, swimming, basketball or badminton, he was drawn to fencing’s more eccentric style. “For me, it was so cool. You get to use a sword, you’re in all white, poking your opponent – like Star Wars, but real life,” he says.

His parents encouraged the hobby; the expectation that it would boost his chances of getting into a good secondary school certainly helped.

Two years into secondary school at Sha Tin’s Lam Tai Fai College, the prospect of going professional was floated. “I didn’t know it’d be very tiring, that I’d get burned out easily, but I thought I’d get to do what I like every day, and get paid for it,” says Choi.

At age 18, after leaving school, he became a full-time athlete. A year later, Choi qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics and at 19, he became the youngest fencer to represent the city at the Olympics. At the Asian Games in 2018, he scored two silver medals, a record achievement for the Hong Kong team.

All the while, athletes were increasingly being seen as public figures and influencers. Choi – who as a toddler would be dressed in matching outfits with his sisters, and fell in love with fashion after seeing The Devil Wears Prada as a teen – realised he could do it all.

Rather than breaking into fashion after retiring from fencing, he could work with brands and compete at the same time.

But doing it all proved a lot to handle. Choi’s sporting career came to a halt when he announced he was retiring in April 2019, kicking off what he jokingly calls his “funemployment life”.

The goal was to pivot to fashion and travel more, but the 2019 anti-government protests in Hong Kong and, in 2020, the outbreak of Covid-19, put everything on pause. Only afterwards did Choi realise that the move was prompted by stress and burnout, but free time was challenging in its own way.

“It was a big contrast with what I was used to – a lifestyle structured by my coach, with everything planned for,” he says. “My schedule was suddenly blank; it took me a long time to get used to that.”

“There’s still stress, you have competitions, rankings, and there are a lot more good fencers in HK, but I get to enjoy it more,” he notes.

Besides restoring his love of fencing, Choi’s two-and-a-half-year break saw him network with fashion brands from Louis Vuitton and Prada to Bottega Veneta and Chanel.

“Now that I’ve restarted fencing and the world is moving forward again, a lot of the relationships I built are coming back in different ways. It wasn’t zero gain, but it wasn’t what I expected,” he says.

An average week sees Choi train Monday to Friday, and Saturday mornings: on weekdays, he’s active for at least five hours, and mainly stays in dorms with his teammates. But where other people working high-pressure jobs may de-stress with yoga or meditation, his go-to has always been fashion.

As a confessed extrovert, taking part in photo shoots, attending events and staying abreast of fashion week shows is his form of stress relief.

It remains to be seen how he’ll carve out a life for himself after fencing. “When I think about what I need to do after my fencing career, it’s still a blur,” he says.

In the near future, Choi’s goals are defined. At the moment, he’s nursing a hamstring injury in Hong Kong; recovery is key ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics, for which the qualifying season begins in April, and lasts until March 2024.

Since the Games won’t be his first, Choi is looking forward to approaching the whole undertaking – from training to competing – with his fresh new frame of mind.

“Just to enjoy every moment,” he says. “Now I want to go back and feel everything again.”