Descendants of the Sun’s Kim Ji-won before the fame: as she stars in Lovestruck in the City with Ji Chang-wook, we look at how the K-drama actress got to where she is today

Jan 12 , 2021

A young Kim Ji-won before she was scoring roles in hit K-dramas. Photo: @tasyayh/Twitter, @geewonii_pr_crew/Instagram

Before Kim Ji-won made it big on the small screen, she sang backup in Younha’s Gossip Boy music video, starred in soda commercials and even thought about becoming a kindergarten teacher

Fans of the series It’s Okay Not to Be Okay had cause for celebration this past December when a new drama, Lovestruck in the City, also directed by Park Shin-woo, made its international debut.

Lovestruck in the City debuted on Christmas Day 2020, much to the delight of Kim’s fans. Photo: Kakao M

The K-drama, which again showcases the mesmerising cinematography that It’s Okay garnered praise for, stars Healer’s Ji Chang-wook and Kim Ji-won in the documentary-like show that follows the romantic lives of six people.

Kim Ji-won on a Descendants of the Sun promotional poster. Photo: KBS

If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Kim has appeared in many hit dramas in roles that range from a despicable high school student in The Heirs and a soldier on Descendants of the Sun, to an announcer wannabe on Fight For My Way.

Now 28, Kim was born in Seoul and has an older sister. To break into the industry, she took up theatre at Dongguk University. However, she readily admits that if she hadn’t pursued this path, she would most likely have become a kindergarten teacher. “I like little kids. I want to spend time with them and receive their good energy,” she once said in an episode of Actor & Chatter.

But before her big television roles, Kim became a pop sensation through another route: commercials. As a college student of 19, Kim’s image was beamed into people’s homes during commercial breaks when she appeared and danced in an advertisement for soda brand Oran-C, which many of her diehard fans still remember. She even said once in an interview that she almost became a singer over an actor while training for her debut.