Lee Jun-hyuk shares a rare off-duty moment ahead of tvN's 'Chilling Romance'

White shirt, necktie, beer emoji — Lee Jun-hyuk takes a breath

Lee Jun-hyuk, 41, dropped a casual Instagram post on September 3. He's leaning back on a black sofa, phone in hand, still buttoned into a white shirt and necktie. A single beer emoji. That's it. A quiet moment between what is, by any measure, a packed schedule.

The actor debuted in 2007 through the music video 기다릴게... by mixed-gender group Typhoon, then picked up the SBS Acting Awards Newstar Award the following year. Awards followed. In 2020 he took home the Asia Artist Awards Best Acting Award and the MBC Acting Awards Male Excellence Award for 365: A Year Against Fate and Secret Forest 2. In 2023 the Asia Artist Awards Best Actor Award for Vigilante and The Roundup: No Way Out. In 2024 the Buil Film Awards Male Star of the Year for 12.12: The Day. Work on My Perfect Secretary and Firefighter added the Korean Broadcasting Awards Best Actor, another Asia Artist Awards prize, and the SBS Acting Awards Male Excellence Award to the shelf.

Six projects, one actor

The schedule that presumably requires the beer emoji:

• Netflix Lady Dua — Park Mu-kyung, 2nd Division 1st Team Leader, Seoul Police Agency Violent Crime Investigation Division
• Netflix Gwangjang — special appearance as Nam Ki-seok
• TVING Even Lottery Winners Go to Work — Gong Eun-tae, an office worker who hits the jackpot
• SBS Awakening — Father Antonio, a guidance priest assigned to Seongyeong High School
• Film The Man Who Lives with the King — special appearance as Prince Geumseong
• tvN Chilling Romance (new Saturday–Sunday drama) — Bong Ji-wook, general manager of Reina Hotel

Chilling Romance is the project the post is timed against, and the Bong Ji-wook casting is the one fans are watching most closely right now. Six simultaneous projects is not a typo.