Her name became famous as an actress after starring in the well-known drama My Love from the Star. However, she first became known due to her Kimchi-making business, which started from her mother’s recipe. Since 2016, Hong Jin-kyung is a cast member of the KBS2 Sister’s Slam Dunk. In this article, Channel Korea will provide you with a run-through of everything about Hong Jin-kyung’s profile, story, and her cancer fight. Want to find out more about her? Stay tuned!
Hong Jin-kyung’s Full Profile and Facts
Name: Hong Jin-kyung Date of Birth: December 23rd, 1977 Age: 41 years old Occupation: Model, Comedian, Singer, Actress, Entrepreneur Height: 180 cm Weight: 51 kg Education: Jeong Eui Women High School (graduated), Dong Guk University – Theater major (graduated) Zodiac: Capricorn Blood Type: A Family: Kim Jung-woo (husband), Kim Ra-el (daughter) Facts about Hong Jin-kyung: She debuted at the age of 16 through an SBS model contest, initially with the intention of supporting her family after her father got sick. Since then, she has been doing numerous jobs as an entertainer, including modeling, hosting, acting, and singing. She is also well known as the model turned comedian. She established a Food Company Ltd. named Hong Jin-kyung, where she is the acting CEO. She is under IOK Entertainment.
Story of Young Hong Jin-kyung
Hong Jin-kyung debuted at the age of 16 through the SBS model contest, initially with the intention of supporting her family due to her father getting sick. From this point onward, she has been active in the entertainment industry doing various jobs, such as modeling, hosting, acting, and singing. She is also well-known as a model turned comedian. Currently, she is the owner of The Kimchi, while continuing her career as an entertainer in various fields of the industry. Before getting married, Hong Jin-kyung publicly shared the story of her kidnapping in Los Angeles. At that time, most club owners liked Hong Jin-kyung and offered her a ride. So, it was nothing new for one of them to extend the courtesy, to which she replied, “I have a five-minute walk to home. He insisted on giving me a ride, but he kept driving for fifteen minutes. And then he took me to the expressway.” At that time, Hong Jin-kyung panicked a little and asked what was happening, but the club owner only told her to shut up. Hong Jin-kyung wanted to try to jump from the car, but it was impossible because they were on the expressway. In 2014, when her name began to be known by many people, Hong Jin-kyung had to fight with cancer. She also got a lot of support from friends and family so she was able to win the battle against cancer.
Hong Jin-kyung and the Story of her Battle with Cancer
In 2014, Hong Jin-kyung struggled to fight cancer in her body. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer during a regular routine health examination. As a mother and an entrepreneur, she rarely had the time to run down to the hospital for a health check-up. Hong Jin-kyung explained that these health check-ups are now a regular part of her life, “I get a health check-up once every three months.” Reporting from Soompi, she says, all to her past struggle with ovarian cancer, “I am all better now.” Reflecting on that time of her life, Hong Jin-kyung shares, “No one who is as young as me gets a health check-up once every three months. But I have been sick before, and I was sorry for my child because I got sick right around the time she was starting to walk.” Hong Jin-kyung recalls 7 painful years of fertility treatment. Hong Jin-kyung’s tears as she was seven years of fertility therapy were so painful that she didn’t even want to think about it again. “I did everything I could. I had therapy for seven years, and it was excruciating. My sister had tried the same therapy for one year and then gave up. She was amazed by the fact that I held on to it for seven years.” “To get through a test tube therapy, you get injections for a whole month, have eggs extracted from your body, and they are stuck back in after a while. One cannot get therapy more often than three months, because the therapy puts lots of pressure on the body.” Hong Jin-kyung is indeed a strong figure!
Hong Jin-kyung as a CEO of Kimchi Company
Besides being active in the entertainment world, Hong Jin-kyung is also a very successful entrepreneur in the culinary field. Hong Jin-kyung has a Kimchi company whose recipe is a recipe passed on to her from her mother. Hong Jin-kyung started the Korean food business in 2003. Over time, the business started moving rapidly, and this woman even made a home shopping channel to sell her artificial Kimchi. Now, Hong Jin-kyung also has a factory to produce Kimchi in its own name, which has revenues of around $35.8 million/year. Hong Jin-kyung released her friends’ free-living single, Kimchi for free, and the word spread out quickly through the large network of acquaintances in the entertainment industry. For about a year, her mother would make kimchi at home for profit, leading to her opening an online kimchi shop called The Kimchi, in 2004. In 2015, a rumor circulated that Korea is at risk of loss due to fierce competition from China. As the acting CEO of The Kimchi, Hong Jin-kyung said, “Even in Korea there are more people eating Chinese Kimchi.” She continued, “It’s sad. I have this sense of Kimchi pride in our country. But it’s just a little sad for me.”
Dreamer on KBS’ Sister Slam Dunk
Sister’s Slam Dunk is a South Korean variety show that features an all-woman cast of actresses, idols, and comedians. Featuring actress Ra Mi-ran, comedian Kim Sook, singer Jessi, model Hong Jin-kyung, and actress Min Hyo-rin, the show follows each cast member as she tries to achieve a long-held unfulfilled dream. Sister’s Slam Dunk aired every Friday on KBS 2TV from April 8th to December 2nd, 2016. In resembling a reality show and a documentary show, each episode also documented their activities together and the relationship between the members. In season 1, the overarching theme of the show was the fulfillment of each member’s dreams. Every episode was focused on accomplishing several tasks that would lead to the fulfillment of those dreams. The members’ dreams were as followed, in chronological order. Hong Jin-kyung – Producing a Hong Jingyeong Show. Episodes for this dream revolved around the members filming a short film with the final task to submit the short film into a film festival. Meanwhile, Kim Sook wanted to obtain a bus driver’s license. Min Hyo-rin debuted in a girl group. Jessi, completing three missions from the past, present, and future from Jessi’s father. Ra Mi-ran, building a restaurant, having a photoshoot and producing a Christmas carol.
