Actor Kim Ji-hoon. [Yonhap]
Actor Kim Ji-hoon. [Yonhap]

Actor Kim Ji-hoon has opened up about his surprisingly accomplished school days, revealing he had an IQ of 150 and scored in the top 1 percent nationwide on the college entrance exam.

A video of Kim appearing on the YouTube channel "Yu In Radio" was posted Wednesday.

During the episode, host Yu In-na brought up Kim's academic record, saying, "You were an exceptional student. Your IQ came out above 150, and on the college entrance exam — which was scored out of 400 at the time — you were in the high 350s. That's an incredibly hard score to get."

Kim responded calmly. "I did the best I could," he said. "Honestly, I was hoping for a higher score. I even thought about retaking the exam, but the idea of going through all that preparation again was just too dreadful."

Co-host Ko Yeong-bae then chimed in, saying he had heard Kim never ranked lower than third in his class. Kim quickly corrected him: "In my homeroom class."

When the hosts suggested that his looks and grades must have made him popular in school, Kim pushed back. "I was a nobody," he said. "Especially in high school — my hormones must have been going wild, because I had a lot of acne and wore glasses."

Kim, a psychology graduate of Ajou University, made his acting debut in 2002 in the KBS drama series "Loving You." He currently stars in the Coupang Play series "The Affair Was Just the Beginning," playing Jae-hong, a younger husband and fellow actor to the character Gyeong-hui, played by Kim Hye-su.


choigo@heraldcorp.com