5 surprising K-pop idol careers before fame: Enhypen’s Sunghoon was a figure skater and Wei’s Daehyeon a civil engineer, but what about Eric Nam, Soyou and Lesserafim’s Kazuha?

May 26 , 2022

What kind of jobs did Soyou, Enhypen’s Sunghoon, Lessafirm’s Kazuha, Wei’s Daehyeon and Eric Nam have before their debuts? Photos: @soooo_you, @enhypen, @le_sserafim, @daehyeon0211, @ericnam/Instagram

Lesserafim’s Kazuha and Enhypen’s Sunghoon were still performers – the former a professional ballet dancer, the latter a competitive figure skater who trained with an Olympic athlete

Eric Nam was a business analyst at Deloitte, Wei’s Daehyeon was a civil engineer and former hairdresser Soyou even styled for 4Minute and Highlight as a trainee

To become a K-pop star is no easy feat – in fact, most idols go through years of vigorous training (sometimes from childhood) before they debut. And even that doesn’t always guarantee success. In some rare cases, however, K-pop idols transition from careers totally unrelated to the industry. Whether they auditioned or were scouted, these idols eventually got on the road to stardom – even if they didn’t originally intend to. So which idols had jobs outside the K-pop industry before debuting?

Lesserafim’s Kazuha

Kazuha was a ballet dancer before her debut with Lesserafim. Photo: @le_sserafim/Instagram

Before debuting in Hybe’s newest girl group, 18-year-old Kazuha was actually a professional ballet dancer, and has been learning since she was three years old.

She trained in prestigious ballet schools like the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Russia and the Royal Ballet School in the UK, and has won countless awards for her performances, per Korean media. She even played Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Despite her growing success in ballet, however, she did have some doubts in pursuing it further as a career, according to Koreaboo. During the pandemic, she submitted audition videos to Source Music. The rest is history, as she ended up debuting with Lesserafim.

But she did still get to show off her ballet skills, as she demonstrated her graceful moves to the world in her debut teaser video.

Enhypen’s Sunghoon

Sunghoon was a professional figure skater. Photo: @enhypen/Instagram

Sunghoon had an extensive figure skating career before debuting in Enhypen, even training with the likes of Olympic skater Cha Jun-hwan. Competing from 2010 to 2020, he won international competitions like the Asian Figure Skater Trophy and the Lombardia Trophy, and even competed after he became a trainee in 2018.

He obviously didn’t have as many chances to skate after his debut, but he got to flex his skills in an episode of Enhypen’s En-O’Clock variety show in 2021, and fans pointed out that he seemed very happy to return to the ice. Regardless, we’re glad he chose to debut with Enhypen and show off his other talents.