Cha Eunwoo was born named Lee Dong Min on March 30, 1997, in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.
As an elementary school student, he represented his school in both soccer and basketball.
Then, in middle school, he began focusing deeply on his studies, dreaming of becoming a doctor, judge, or lawyer. Every day of the week, he attended a private academy and didn’t stop studying until the late hours of the night.
Alongside being the third-best student in his class, Cha Eunwoo was unsurprisingly popular for his good looks in middle school. However, the ever-modest star has always denied how handsome he was back then.
Little did this young student know that his focus on school and sports were all about to change. When Eunwoo was around 14 or 15, he was scouted by a talent agent from Fantagio Entertainment—on his way to the bathroom at a school festival, of all places.
At first, young Cha Eunwoo’s parents turned down the idea of him becoming a superstar. Even Eunwoo himself was reluctant. However, after the talent scout kept persisting, he decided to give the audition just one try and he passed! Cha Eunwoo was recruited to Fantagio Entertainment straight away, where he began his life as a trainee.
When he started his first year of high school, he joined the company’s i-Teen pre-debut project under his real name, Lee Dong Min. While under the training system, he appeared on KBS News, modeled for a cosmetics company, and even made his debut as an actor. His first role was a minor character in the movie My Brilliant Life in 2014.
The next year, he participated in the web drama To Be Continued with his fellow Fantagio Entertainment trainees. Since Cha Eunwoo’s original ambition wasn’t to become an idol, it can’t have been easy for him to build his performing arts skills. However, his hardworking personality prevailed, and in 2016, Eunwoo debuted as the visual and vocalist in ASTRO!
Just a few months after his debut, Cha Eunwoo was already building his career in television, appearing on several variety shows. Soon, he was chosen as the new MC for Show! Music Core alongside actresses Kim Sae Ron and Lee Soo Min.
Then, he carried on building his acting resume, with roles in Hit the Top, Sweet Revenge, and Top Management. Meanwhile, ASTRO was climbing up the charts—both in South Korea and beyond. In 2018, they embarked on a global fan-meeting tour across the United States, Canada, Japan, and more.
By the end of 2018, ASTRO had already released seven title tracks, several of which made it to the US World Charts. The same year, Cha Eunwoo got his first lead acting role in the popular JTBC drama My ID is Gangnam Beauty. Right away, the role propelled him to even greater heights, and GQ Korea even included him on their “Men of the Year” list.
2019 was an incredible year for Cha Eunwoo as an actor. After starring alongside Shin Se Kyung in MBC‘s historical drama Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung, he won the “Excellence Award for an Actor” and the “Best Couple Award” at the 2019 MBC Drama Awards. Alongside releasing two singles with ASTRO, he also held his first-ever Asia fan-meeting tour in 2019. Over just three short years, Cha Eunwoo had already become one of the biggest stars of his generation.
And, of course, he’s only gone up from there. In 2020, Eunwoo broadened his career in television further. Stints on two SBS variety shows, Handsome Tigers and Master in the House, earned him a “Rookie Award” for variety at the 2020 SBS Entertainment Awards. He also found the time to join ASTRO for not one, not two, but four new singles that year.
Even now, in 2021, Cha Eunwoo is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s earning tons of praise for his acting on tvN‘s highly anticipated drama True Beauty, and there’s no doubt he’ll be wowing everyone with his skills in an ASTRO come back soon.
