Park Sung-hoon Opens Up About Playing Hyun-ju in ‘Squid Game’ Season 3

Why Did Park Sung-hoon Take On This Role?

When Squid Game Season 3 dropped, all eyes were on the new players thrown into that brutal world. But few characters sparked as much talk as Cho Hyun-ju, played by Park Sung-hoon. Hyun-ju is a transgender woman, a former special forces soldier, and one of the toughest, softest people in the whole arena.

Park knew this role wouldn’t be simple. Playing a trans woman as a cisgender man comes with its own giant weight. He didn’t want to lean on tropes or cheap shock. He wanted Hyun-ju to feel real, human, layered. Not just a tragic figure or a token checkmark.

He admitted he felt the pressure. He wondered if people would feel offended. Or if he’d accidentally miss something vital. So he threw himself into Hyun-ju’s personality first — her sense of fairness, her hidden humor, her fierce loyalty. He focused on her choices in the game, not just her identity.

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How Does Hyun-ju’s Story Fit Into Squid Game?

Every season of Squid Game has at least one player who holds up a mirror to real life. In Season 1, it was Ali. His kindness in a cruel game broke hearts. In Season 3, that role fell on Hyun-ju. She’s faced hate and bias her whole life. When she walks into the game, she doesn’t lose that fight. She just wears it on her sleeve.

Park pointed out how Hyun-ju’s dynamic with Geum-ja shows that shift. Geum-ja, older and bitter, starts out mocking her. Little comments. Small jabs. But when she sees Hyun-ju stand her ground, fight for people who can’t fight for themselves, that wall breaks down. Respect grows. Affection grows.

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Park says that’s the point. Hyun-ju doesn’t just survive the games. She makes you question what bias you carried in with you — and what you leave behind.

How Did Park Prepare For Such A Complex Part?

Hyun-ju’s not all action scenes and sad backstory. She’s careful. She forms alliances. She tries to keep her people alive, even when it costs her. Park said he really leaned into that idea — that her deepest weakness is her empathy.

It’s easy to play a strong soldier. It’s harder to play a strong soldier who would rather not shoot at all. During that coup scene on the staircase — the one where she fights off the pink guards — the tension isn’t about the gun. It’s about the fact that she hates that she’s good at this.

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Park made sure the audience would feel that too. It’s not empty violence. Hyun-ju’s entire arc is built on protecting people she barely knew a week ago. Because she knows what it’s like to stand alone.

Why Did This Story Matter To Park?

When Park talks about Hyun-ju, it’s clear he sees her as one of the most meaningful roles he’s done so far. He didn’t want her to feel like a stereotype. He wanted her to be stubborn and gentle at the same time. Someone who fights not because she loves conflict but because she believes someone has to stand up.

He mentioned that Hyun-ju dreams about a quiet life in Thailand. All she wants is a piece of freedom — a place where she doesn’t have to explain herself every day. That simple goal drives every brutal choice she makes.

Park says that at the end of the day, he hopes viewers remember her humanity more than anything else. That her identity isn’t just a plot twist or a political statement. It’s a fact. It shapes her but doesn’t limit her.

In a show built on betrayals and greed, Hyun-ju became a reminder of what it means to care about strangers. And for Park Sung-hoon, that was worth every bit of fear that came with playing her.