Actor Park Sung Hoon will be leaving the upcoming drama ‘The Tyrant‘s Chef’. It has been only 13 days since he accidentally posted pornography and suffered embarrassment.

On the 11th, news broke that Park Sung Hoon would be leaving the new tvN drama ‘The Tyrant’s Chef’. Studio Dragon (planning) and Park Sung Hoon‘s agency BH Entertainment also stated their position, ‘Leaving after discussion.’.

On the 12th, the drama’s production company, Jung Universe, posted a message on their official SNS addressing concerns from potential viewers who are concerned about the ‘delay in broadcasting’ due to Park Sung Hoon‘s leaving ‘The Tyrant’s Chef’.

The production company said, “After much discussion, the production team and actor Park Sung Hoon have decided that it will be difficult to continue working on this project together.” They went on to explain the situation, saying, “Regarding the recent events, both the actor and his agency have apologized several times and have been closely discussing the various situations.”

They continued, “‘The Tyrant’s Chef‘ is scheduled for the second half of this year, so there will be no disruption to production or scheduling,” adding, “We are also discussing a replacement actor and will announce it as soon as it is confirmed.”

They also dismissed rumors that “a script reading is scheduled for the 16th,” saying, “Undecided.”


On December 30th of last year, Park Sung Hoon posted and then deleted an AV (Adult Video) cover parodying the Netflix series ‘Squid Game’ on his Instagram story. The photo explicitly showed numerous women having sex and having nudity.

Park Sung Hoon appeared in ‘Squid Game 2’ as ‘Hyun Joo #120’, a transgender who needs money to complete gender confirmation surgery. In a situation where he was receiving favorable reviews for his strong presence, he embarrassed himself, causing both criticism and pity.

His agency BH Entertainment stated, “The photo was a post that someone sent to Park Sung Hoon via DM (direct message), and Park Sung Hoon accidentally clicked on it and it ended up on his SNS account. The actor himself was extremely embarrassed and immediately deleted it. He explained, “I am reflecting on my mistake.”

However, since photos received via DM must be saved separately in order to be posted during the process of posting on Instagram Stories, Park Sung Hoon’s stance of ‘mistake’ faced secondary criticism of ‘false explanation’.


As the controversy grew, the sparks flew to Park Sung Hoon‘s next work, ‘The Tyrant’s Chef’. ‘The Tyrant‘s Chef’ is a fantasy survival romance that transcends 500 years as a French chef who time-slips meets the worst tyrant but also the greatest gourmet king. Im Yoon-ah and Kang Han-na star. Potential viewers demanded his departure, saying, ‘How can you get immersed in a romance drama if an actor who accidentally posted obscene material appears in it?’

The cancellation of the script reading for ‘The Tyrant’s Chef’ gave weight to Park Sung Hoon‘s departure, but the production team drew the line at the time, saying, “We took into consideration the social atmosphere of the national mourning period due to the passenger plane disaster”.

After that, on the 8th, Park Sung Hoon personally apologized for the second time in a ‘Squid Game 2’ media interview, saying, “I’m really upset that something like this happened when the drama and the character were receiving so much attention and love. First of all, I feel very sorry for our entire team”.

Despite this tearful explanation, it seems that Park Sung Hoon‘s damaged image has not recovered. In the end, ‘The Tyrant’s Chef’ has decided to start over by making the male lead‘s departure official. Drama fans are paying close attention to Park Sung Hoon’s next move and the replacement actor for ‘The Tyrant‘s Chef’.

Jeon Hyo-jin, Donga.com reporter jhj@donga.com