If you finished Between Steps (연애박사) tonight and want more of Choo Young-woo (추영우), here is the short answer: start with The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call on Netflix, then pick The Tale of Lady Ok for his range or Head Over Heels for another romance. The rest of this guide explains why, lists every drama and film he has made so far with the legal service we could confirm for each, and tells you what is coming next. Availability was checked on official pages on November 10, 2026, and it changes by country, so treat the table as a starting point rather than a promise.
Key takeaways
- Between Steps, his ENA romance with Kim So-hyun, ends its 12-episode run on November 10, 2026. Outside Korea it streams on Disney+ in many (not all) markets and on Hulu in the US.
- His easiest titles to find abroad are Netflix's The Trauma Code and Mercy for None, his film Even If This Love Disappears Tonight, and Prime Video's Head Over Heels.
- Netflix confirmed on October 19, 2026 that Trauma Code seasons 2 and 3 are in production with Choo returning; no release date has been announced.
In this guide
- Which Choo Young-woo drama to watch first
- Who Choo Young-woo is, in brief
- Between Steps: the drama ending tonight
- Every drama and film, with where to watch
- The two 2025 roles that made his name
- His romance roles, compared
- The early work fans often skip
- Korean details that help these dramas land
- How to plan a legal Choo Young-woo marathon
- What comes next
- FAQ
- Final thoughts
- Sources
Which Choo Young-woo drama to watch first
Fans ask this question in different moods, so the honest answer depends on what you liked about Between Steps. These picks are our editorial recommendations, not rankings, and they are based on genre, episode count and how easy each title is to find legally outside Korea.
| If you want... | Watch | Why |
| His best-known role | The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (2025) | A Netflix original with only 8 episodes; it won him Best New Actor at the 2025 Blue Dragon Series Awards |
| Proof of his range | The Tale of Lady Ok (2024–2025) | A Joseon-era drama in which he plays more than one character; Baeksang Best New Actor, 2025 |
| Another romance | Head Over Heels (2025) | Fantasy first-love story with Cho Yi-hyun; Prime Video says it launched in more than 240 countries and territories |
| Something short | Even If This Love Disappears Tonight (2025 film) | A single feature-length romance, on Netflix since February 4, 2026 |
| A darker turn | Mercy for None (2025) | Netflix action noir led by So Ji-sub, with Choo in a supporting role |
Who Choo Young-woo is, in brief
 Choo Young-woo (추영우) during a radio appearance in September 2022 (event photo). Photo: SBS Radio 에라오 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 |  At the press conference for The Tale of Lady Ok, November 28, 2024 (event photo). Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 |  Departing Incheon Airport for KCON Japan, May 9, 2025 (event photo). Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 TV10 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 |
Choo Young-woo was born on June 5, 1999, and began acting in 2021 with the web series You Make Me Dance. That same year he joined KBS's Police University and the long-running School franchise in School 2021. Steady supporting and lead work followed, but the real change came in late 2024 and 2025, when three projects aired within months of each other: JTBC's The Tale of Lady Ok, Netflix's The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call and tvN's Head Over Heels.
The awards record shows that shift clearly. He won Best New Actor at the KBS Drama Awards for Oasis in 2023, then collected new-actor prizes at both the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards (for The Tale of Lady Ok) and the Blue Dragon Series Awards (for The Trauma Code) in 2025. Forbes Korea also put him on its 2025 "30 Under 30" entertainment list. For an actor who debuted only four years earlier, that is an unusually fast climb, and it explains why so many international viewers met him in 2025 without knowing his earlier work.
Between Steps: the drama ending tonight
Between Steps premiered on ENA on October 5, 2026, airing Mondays and Tuesdays at 10 p.m. KST, and its 12th and final episode is scheduled for November 10. Choo plays Park Min-jae, a former competitive swimmer who lost his right leg to illness and rebuilt his life as a robotics PhD student. Kim So-hyun plays Im Yoo-jin, a clothing-and-textiles student whose plans collapse after a campus incident and who ends up in the same lab. The drama was written by Min Hyo-jung (Full House) and directed by Ahn Pan-seok (Something in the Rain, One Spring Night), who died in August 2026; reports say filming and editing were already complete, so the series airs as he finished it.
 A competition pool: Min-jae was a swimmer before illness ended that path (generic photo). Photo: Xander from Yellowknife, NT, Canada / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 |  A small robotic gripper, the kind of hardware a robotics lab works with (generic photo). Photo: Manjil Aryal / WordPress Photo Directory, CC0 |  A university robotics lab; Between Steps is set in one (generic photo from Russia, not the drama set). Photo: Нечаева Лилия Александровна / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 |
What makes the role worth watching is restraint. Min-jae is not written as a tragic figure; the story treats his prosthetic leg as part of daily life, and Goldscene reports that Choo worked with a prosthetic consultant on set so his walk and habits would look natural. If you came to him through the louder energy of The Trauma Code, Between Steps shows a quieter, more internal side.
Where to watch Between Steps outside Korea
In Korea it airs on ENA and streams on Genie TV. Internationally, Disney+ has official title pages in several markets, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico and Canada, and Hulu carries it in the United States. At launch it was not available on Disney+ in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain or Germany, according to Kdrama Kopi. If you live elsewhere, open Disney+ in your own country before assuming it is there.
Catch up on Between Steps legally
The official Disney+ page shows the synopsis and episode list, and tells you right away whether the series is in your country's catalog.
Every drama and film, with where to watch
The list below follows his credited filmography. The "where to watch" column only names a service when we reached its official title page or an official announcement on November 10, 2026, or when a reliable reference lists it; otherwise it says so. Netflix and Disney+ catalogs differ by country, so a title page that opens for us may not open for you.
| Year | Title | His role | Where to watch (as of November 10, 2026) |
| 2021 | You Make Me Dance (web series) | Song Si-on | Not verified |
| 2021 | Police University (KBS2) | Park Min-kyu | Not verified |
| 2021–2022 | School 2021 (KBS2) | Jung Young-joo | Not verified |
| 2022 | Drama Stage: Babel Syndrome (tvN one-act) | Jang Ha-neul | Not verified |
| 2022 | Once Upon a Small Town (KakaoTV) | Han Ji-yul | Netflix title page live |
| 2023 | Oasis (KBS2) | Choi Chul-woong | Viki in selected regions (per Wikipedia; not checked) |
| 2024–2025 | The Tale of Lady Ok (JTBC) | Cheon Seung-hwi / Song Seo-in | Netflix title page live; Viu and KOCOWA in selected regions per Wikipedia |
| 2025 | The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call (Netflix) | Yang Jae-won | Netflix original |
| 2025 | Mercy for None (Netflix) | Lee Geum-son | Netflix original |
| 2025 | Head Over Heels (tvN) | Bae Gyeon-woo | Prime Video outside Korea; TVING in Korea |
| 2025 | Even If This Love Disappears Tonight (film) | Kim Jae-won | Netflix since February 4, 2026 |
| 2026 | Between Steps (ENA) | Park Min-jae | Disney+ (many markets), Hulu (US), Genie TV (Korea) |
| TBA | Long Vacation | Demon 3375 | Not yet released |
"Not verified" does not mean a title is unavailable; it means we could not confirm a legal service for it on official pages in this check. Avoid unofficial upload sites, which often carry poor subtitles and do nothing for the people who made the show.
The two 2025 roles that made his name
The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call
Released on Netflix on January 24, 2025, this medical drama follows Baek Kang-hyuk (Ju Ji-hoon), a battle-tested trauma surgeon sent to rescue a failing hospital unit. Choo plays Yang Jae-won, the junior doctor who becomes Kang-hyuk's first protégé. Jae-won is the newcomer who has to keep up with a blunt, unconventional mentor, which makes him the character viewers experience the hospital through. Netflix says season 1 reached the Top 10 in 63 countries in 2025 and was No. 1 in 18 of them. With only eight episodes, it is also the fastest way to see why he became popular.
The Tale of Lady Ok
 Lim Ji-yeon (임지연) at The Tale of Lady Ok press conference, November 2024 (event photo). Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 |  Joseon-style hanok at Namsangol Hanok Village, Seoul, the kind of setting Lady Ok recreates (not a filming location). Photo: Mobius6 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 |  The Namsangol Hanok Village signboard in central Seoul, a free spot for a taste of Joseon architecture. Photo: Mobius6 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 |
This JTBC historical drama aired from November 30, 2024 to January 26, 2025, with Lim Ji-yeon as a woman who escapes slavery by taking on another identity. Choo plays a wandering storyteller who falls for her, and the story also gives him a second character, which gave him the chance to show two quite different sides. It is longer and slower than Trauma Code, but if you only watch one title to judge his acting, this is the one the Baeksang jury rewarded.
His romance roles, compared
Romance is where many international fans first fall for him, and his three main love stories feel very different. In Head Over Heels (tvN, June 23 to July 29, 2025), he plays Bae Gyeon-woo, an unlucky boy whose classmate Seong-a (Cho Yi-hyun) is secretly a shaman trying to save his life. Prime Video's own announcement noted that the two actors were reuniting after School 2021, so fans of that earlier drama get a payoff. Even If This Love Disappears Tonight, his first film, is a Korean adaptation of a Japanese novel about a high school girl who loses her memory every day; it opened in Korean theaters on December 24, 2025 and reached Netflix on February 4, 2026. Between Steps is the most adult of the three, built around two graduate students starting over after their first plans fell apart, rather than a first crush.
Our view: if you enjoy the slow, conversational style of Between Steps, the film is the closer match in tone. If you liked the lighter scenes, Head Over Heels is the better next step.
A note on Mercy for None
Mercy for None (Netflix, June 6, 2025) is an action noir led by So Ji-sub as a former gangster avenging his brother. Choo plays Lee Geum-son in a supporting part. It is violent and not a romance at all, so it suits viewers who want to see him outside his usual image rather than fans looking for more screen time.
The early work fans often skip
His earlier titles are harder to find abroad but explain how he got here. In Oasis (KBS2, March 6 to April 25, 2023), he played Choi Chul-woong alongside Jang Dong-yoon and Seol In-ah, and won the KBS new-actor prize. Once Upon a Small Town (2022) is a light countryside romance in which he plays a Seoul veterinarian opposite Park Soo-young, better known to K-pop fans as Red Velvet's Joy; it currently has a Netflix title page. School 2021 is worth it mainly for the Cho Yi-hyun connection that Head Over Heels later revisited.
One practical tip: older KBS dramas move between services often. If you cannot find one, search the Korean title (for example 오아시스 or 학교 2021) together with the name of a legal service in your country, rather than trusting an aggregator listing from a year ago.
Korean details that help these dramas land
A few terms come up across his work. Jeongisu (전기수) were professional storytellers who read novels aloud to paying audiences in the late Joseon period; his storyteller character in The Tale of Lady Ok draws on that tradition. A mudang (무당) is a shaman in Korean folk religion, which is the secret identity at the center of Head Over Heels; the drama uses it as fantasy, not as a documentary about real practice. The Korean title of Between Steps, Yeonae Baksa (연애박사), literally means "PhD in dating", a joke that works because both leads are graduate students who are clumsy at romance. And when Korean articles call him a daese (대세) actor, they mean an actor of the moment, the one everyone is casting.
How to plan a legal Choo Young-woo marathon
- Start with what is on your existing subscriptions. Many readers already have Netflix, and its title pages for The Trauma Code, Mercy for None and the film were live when we checked.
- Search each official app by its English title. Use the exact titles in the table above; Between Steps is listed under that name on Disney+, not under its Korean title.
- Check your country, not someone else's. A title page that opens in one country can be missing in another, as Between Steps showed in parts of Europe.
- Add one service at a time. If you want Head Over Heels, Prime Video is the service to look at; if you want Between Steps, it is Disney+ or Hulu. Check each service's current plans and prices in your country before signing up.
- Watch in release order if you care about growth. School 2021, Oasis, Lady Ok, Trauma Code, Head Over Heels and Between Steps show his progression clearly.
What comes next
Two projects are confirmed. Netflix announced on October 19, 2026 that The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call seasons 2 and 3 are in production, with Ju Ji-hoon returning as Baek Kang-hyuk and Choo returning as Yang Jae-won; director Lee Do-yun is also writing the new seasons. No premiere date has been given. He is also cast in Long Vacation with Lee Se-young, playing a demon referred to as 3375, according to a Chosun Biz report from April 2026 cited on Wikipedia. Treat any release month you see online for either project as unconfirmed until the platform announces it.
Watch season 1 before seasons 2 and 3 arrive
Netflix's official page for The Trauma Code lets you add it to your list and check that it is in your region. With eight episodes, you can catch up in a weekend.
FAQ
How many episodes does Between Steps have?
Twelve. It aired two episodes a week, on Mondays and Tuesdays, from October 5 to November 10, 2026.
Is Choo Young-woo in The Trauma Code season 2?
Yes. Netflix's October 19, 2026 announcement names him as returning as Yang Jae-won for seasons 2 and 3. There is no release date yet.
Which Choo Young-woo drama won him the most awards?
The Tale of Lady Ok and The Trauma Code. The first earned him the Baeksang Best New Actor award in 2025, and the second won Best New Actor at the 2025 Blue Dragon Series Awards.
Did Choo Young-woo and Cho Yi-hyun work together before Head Over Heels?
Yes, in School 2021. Prime Video's announcement for Head Over Heels highlighted the reunion.
Is Head Over Heels on Netflix?
Not in the sources we checked. Outside Korea it is a Prime Video exclusive; in Korea it streams on TVING.
Final thoughts
Choo Young-woo is still early in his career, which makes him fun to follow: his work splits neatly into a short apprenticeship and a burst of lead roles from late 2024 onward. If Between Steps was your introduction, The Trauma Code is the easiest next step, The Tale of Lady Ok is the most rewarding, and the film is the quickest. Check your own country's catalog before subscribing to anything, and keep an eye on Netflix for Trauma Code dates.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Choo Young-woo (filmography and awards)
- Goldscene: Between Steps premieres on Disney+ and Hulu (October 5, 2026)
- Seen in Korea: Where to watch Between Steps (October 5, 2026)
- Kdrama Kopi: Between Steps and Disney+ availability in Europe
- Disney+: Between Steps
- Wikipedia: Between Steps
- Netflix: The Trauma Code seasons 2 and 3 production confirmed (October 19, 2026)
- Netflix: The Trauma Code: Heroes on Call
- Netflix: Mercy for None
- Netflix: The Tale of Lady Ok
- Netflix: Even If This Love Disappears Tonight
- Netflix: Once Upon a Small Town
- Amazon MGM Studios press: Head Over Heels premiering on Prime Video (May 21, 2025)
- Prime Video: Head Over Heels
- Wikipedia: The Tale of Lady Ok
- Wikipedia: Oasis (South Korean TV series)
- Wikipedia: Head over Heels (South Korean TV series)
By the Korea Vibe Hopper team · Updated November 10, 2026