South Korean actress Han Sohee is taking the world by storm, one drama at a time. The 26-year-old actress found herself pushed into the spotlight with her role as Yeo Dakyung in the record-breaking The World of the Married. Now, she’s starring as art student Yoo Nabi in Nevertheless, alongside actor Song Kang. But before this beauty became a sought-after actress, Sohee led a simple and difficult life. Here are 8 Han Sohee facts you might not know about this breakout star:

Her real name is Lee Sohee

She only uses Han Sohee as her stage name. That’s also probably why her Instagram username is @xeesoxee, where she replaced the L and H in her real name with X. Cute!

She used to have tatts!

PRE DEBUT HAN SO HEE DOING THE HOT GIRL SHT THING 🥵 pic.twitter.com/iqTpZJsAKN

— so hee’s wife #Nevertheless (@kdramaluvrr) July 5, 2021

Before her debut, she had a full sleeve tattoo on her left arm and a few more on her right. She also used to smoke, and photos of her past look have circulated online. Sohee had her tattoos removed to pursue her dreams of becoming an actress. In some of her recent photos, you’d be able to see remnants of her tattoo on her arms.

She starred in several music videos

Before working on K-dramas and films, Sohee first showed off her acting skills in music videos of popular Korean artists, including SHINEE’s “Tell Me What to Do” and CN Blue Jung Yonghwa’s “That Girl.”

She was raised by her grandmother

Her parents divorced when Sohee was five years old. Since then, her grandmother has been taking care of her. She spent her childhood and teenage years with her grandmother, until she graduated from high school. She describes her grandmother as her “everything.” She even tattooed her grandma’s birth flower on herself as a dedication to the one who raised her.

She moved to Seoul with nearly no money to her name

In an old interview, Sohee shared that she didn’t always have a rose-colored life. When she moved to Seoul to pursue her dreams, she was only 20 years old, with only 300,000 won (or about 13,000 pesos) in her pocket.

Even after getting acting jobs that let her lead a more comfortable life, she even had to pay her mom’s debts, in which her mother used Sohee’s name as co-debtor.

She worked a lot of odd jobs

Sohee shared how she had always dreamed of becoming an actress. But because she had little to no money, she had to take up odd jobs to keep herself sustained while auditioning and looking for acting jobs. She worked part-time in bars and beer joints.

She loves art

Like her character in Nevertheless, Han Sohee was also an art major. She used to post a lot of her sketches on social media, but she stopped to focus on her acting.

But Sohee finally got to combine her degree with her career in Nevertheless! The actress actually did some of the artworks her character is making in the show, and even the art director was so impressed.

She was a big fan of Nevertheless even way before it became a show

In the show’s press conference, Sohee shared that she was already reading the webtoon even before it was picked up for TV adaptation. “I was a big fan of the original webtoon, and as the director said, I could relate to Yoo Na Bi’s feelings of falling in love,” she said.

What else do you know about breakout star Han Sohee? Share them with us!