 Jung started his career as a fashion model, rising to stardom and teenage cult figure status with the gangster movie "Beat" (1997), for which he received the Best New Actor award at the 17th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards.One of the top South Korean stars, Jung is also widely popular in other Asian countries, notably in Japan.A four-time winner of the Popular Actor Award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards he also won, among others, the Busan Film Critics Award for Best Actor for "" (2016); Best Supporting Actor at the 3rd Asian Film Awards for the western "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" (2009) and received 12 nominations for Best Actor.