Before he debuted in ENHYPEN, Sunghoon had already made a name for himself as a figure skater. He started competing in his early teens, and won several medals for his efforts.

Sunghoon could probably have made it to the Olympics if he hadn’t been scouted by HYBE (formerly BigHit Entertainment). He took the company up on its offer to train with them, but he did so without any real intention to debut as an idol. But as Sunghoon spent time around his fellow trainees and their BTS sunbaes, he found himself falling in love with showbiz.

“I joined a dance group, thinking it would help me improve my skating. At the time I didn’t really have my heart set on becoming an artist. It was life-changing for me, watching BTS and the other trainees working hard. I got friendly with them, and that’s when I realized I wanted to become an idol,” he explains.

So it was that he continued to train before joining Mnet’s survival show I-LAND, where he made it into ENHYPEN. When he was still skating full-time, Sunghoon was used to depending on himself. When he became part of a seven-member group, he had to learn to work with others.

Given ENHYPEN’s rapid ascent to the top of the K-pop heap, Sunghoon’s doing just fine.