Heo Sung-tae

The television salesman

Heo Sung-tae sold high-end televisions in the Russian market for the multinational LG. He earned a salary that any young South Korean would have signed up for for life, and he was on a steady climb in the corporate world. In 2011, he decided to leave his post at Daewoo Shipbuilding because the idea of dying in an office weighed on him more than the uncertainty of starting over at 34 years old.

He auditioned for the TV show Miracle Audition with the nerve of someone with nothing to lose. He finished fifth. That result got him into the professional circuit, but it didn't pay the bills right away.

The industry doesn't forgive age.

For years, he worked as an extra or an uncredited supporting actor in low-budget police dramas. His tough-guy face and icy stare typecast him as a thug from the very first minute. But he needed a breakthrough that would pull him out of the crowd of supporting actors who fill the studios of Seoul.

The lucky slap

In 2016, he landed a role in The Age of Shadows under director Kim Jee-woon. There was a scene where Song Kang-ho had to slap him repeatedly. Heo Sung-tae asked for the slap to be real so that his physical reaction wouldn't look like a cheap acting-school trick.

And then came the slap.

That slap put him on the radar of major South Korean producers. Casting directors began looking for an actor who could hold his own against the legends of national cinema. In 2017, he appeared in The Outlaws and The Fortress. For the latter, he had to learn Old Manchu to play a general of the Qing dynasty.

He used his language skills and university training to give his villains an intelligence that wasn't in the original script. He wasn't just a guy who hit hard. He was a guy who knew why he was hitting.

The physical toll of success

The global phenomenon of 2021 with Squid Game changed his bank account but took a toll on his body. To play crime boss Jang Deok-su, he had to gain 17 kilos in just one month. The process caused knee problems and a noticeable decline in his health, which he had to manage after filming.

That long-haired villain with neck tattoos brought him an international profile he never sought. But Heo Sung-tae has always preferred to keep a low profile and focus on the hands-on work. In 2022, he worked on Hunt, the directing debut of Lee Jung-jae, in which he played a security agent with contained intensity.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2023, he starred in Bait as a con artist who flees to Vietnam after a massive fraud. His character connects with his corporate past through the way he handles business language and psychological manipulation. In 2024, he appeared in Crash, a series about traffic crimes in which he plays a veteran with a dry sense of humor.

Filming for the second season of Squid Game in 2024 was carried out under strict confidentiality measures to protect plot details and related advertising contracts.