Kim Jong-kook

Kim Jong-kook is one of those rare artists who keeps proving he's more than whatever box you try to put him in. I first knew him as half of Turbo, the duo that was basically inescapable in 1990s Korean pop — they were selling millions of albums across Asia at a time when K-pop wasn't even a phrase in the Western vocabulary. Then Turbo dissolved, and instead of fading out, Jong-kook came back swinging with his solo debut in 2001 and kept building a catalog that showed real vocal range and staying power. What I genuinely respect is that he never just coasted on nostalgia — he also branched into acting and variety television, becoming a fixture on Running Man for years in a way that let people see a looser, funnier side of him. A guy who can hold a stadium note AND get legitimately dunked on by his castmates for comedic gold is a rare breed.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Kim Jong-kook

Name (Japanese)

キム・ジョングク

Reading

きむ・じょんぐく

Born

April 25, 1976 (age 50)

Origin

Hapcheon County, South Gyeongsang, South Korea

Occupation

singer / actor / television actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Dragon

University

Dankook University

• Official sitehttp://www.marooentertainment.com/asp/artist01.asp?art=274
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/kjk76/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim%20Jong-kook
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A0%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B8%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0%E3%82%AF%20(%E6%AD%8C%E6%89%8B)
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q483527

Tags

• South Gyeongsang
• singer
• actor
• television actor

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.