Rick Yune

Richard Yune, born August 22, 1971, is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and martial artist of Korean descent. Born in Washington, D.C., to parents Park Wonhui and Yun Taeho, he grew up alongside his younger brother, actor Karl Yune. For his high school education, Yune attended Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in Olney, Maryland, as well as St. John's College High School. He went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he graduated with a degree in finance in 1994. Yune also trained extensively in martial arts, becoming a former Golden Gloves boxer and earning a black belt in Taekwondo.

During his studies at Wharton in mid-1992, Yune worked on Wall Street as a stock trading intern. While working there, a modeling agent discovered him, leading to Yune becoming the first Asian-American featured in advertisements for Ralph Lauren's Polo and Versace. In his early financial career, he was one of the original hedge fund traders at SAC Capital before leaving to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. To register with the Screen Actors Guild, he altered the spelling of his surname from Yun to Yune.

Yune made his feature film acting debut in 1999, playing Kazuo Miyamoto in director Scott Hicks' adaptation of the novel Snow Falling on Cedars. He gained broader recognition in 2001 by co-starring as Johnny Tran in the action film The Fast and the Furious. In 2002, he portrayed the North Korean terrorist character Zao in the James Bond feature Die Another Day. That same year, People magazine named him one of the Sexiest Man Alive.

In addition to feature films, Yune appeared in music videos, including SWV's 1997 release Someone and VS's 2004 video Call U Sexy. His early television work included guest roles on Alias, Boston Legal, and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Yune also produced and starred as a Thai assassin in the action film The Fifth Commandment. He subsequently co-starred in the 2012 martial arts movie The Man with the Iron Fists and played terrorist mastermind Kang Yeon-Sak in the 2013 thriller Olympus Has Fallen.

Between 2014 and 2016, Yune joined the main cast of the Netflix original historical drama series Marco Polo, portraying Kaidu, a Mongol Khan, across two seasons. In 2025, he made his debut in Indian cinema with a cameo role as an enigmatic figure in the Malayalam-language film L2: Empuraan.

Beyond his creative career, Yune serves as a board member of the Center for Global Dialogue and Cooperation and acts as an ambassador for the Princess Charlene Foundation of Monaco. In 2025, he was named one of the 50 Hottest Men of All Time by Harper's Bazaar.