Do we like Yoo Ah-in?
Our score: 5 out of 10. A big talent with no harmful campaigning found, but a drug conviction, a dropped assault complaint and a comeback while still on probation.
Yoo Ah-in is one of Korea's most decorated actors. He broke out in Sungkyunkwan Scandal, took a Blue Dragon Best Actor award for The Throne and a Baeksang for Six Flying Dragons. He later won Best Actor at the 2021 Asian Film Awards for Voice of Silence, a dialogue-free role he reportedly bulked up for.
The fall started in 2023, when police opened a probe after the food and drug regulator flagged how often he was buying the sedative propofol. Police tests of his hair and urine came back positive for marijuana, cocaine and ketamine, and films like Hi-Five and The Match had their releases pushed back. In September 2024 he was sentenced to a year in prison. An appeals court suspended it in February 2025, and the Supreme Court locked it in on 3 July 2025: one year, suspended for two, plus a 2 million won fine. He was convicted on habitual drug use, including marijuana and encouraging others to use it.
In July 2024 a man in his 30s accused him of sexually assaulting him while he slept at a Seoul apartment. Yoo's lawyer said the complaint was “not true”. Police dropped it in September 2024 citing a lack of evidence, so nothing was ever proven either way.
On the harm check, we found no campaigning against LGBTQ+ people, women or migrants, no conspiracy theories and nothing on climate or vaccines. In 2023 he apologised publicly, writing that he was sorry for the harm he had caused colleagues and others on his projects. That's honestly a thin record on his views, so this pass comes from absence of evidence, not a long paper trail.
The fresh stoush is the comeback. Reports of a role in Jang Jae-hyun's Vampire first drew a flat denial from the director. Then the distributor released script-reading photos on 18 August, and his new agency Billions confirmed the signing on 21 August after first calling contract talk “groundless”. Actor Go Young-wook publicly asked “Are drugs okay?” and commenters called for a boycott. The Korea Times said the public isn't ready to see him again, and noted no personal statement from Yoo himself.
On the good side, a 2015 report said he paid for a bone marrow transplant for a seven-year-old with leukaemia and had sponsored two other children before. That comes from one outlet citing a children's leukaemia foundation official, so weigh it accordingly. We found no other charity or causes work, so the good-person ledger is short.