Pyun's first 8mm and 16mm movies were made in Kailua and he credits living in foreign countries and growing up in Hawaii as strong influences on his filmmaking style.
[4] While in high school, Pyun worked at a number of production houses in Honolulu before receiving an invitation by the Japanese actor, Toshiro Mifune, to travel to Japan for an internship.
[7] but the actor decided not to do the film and instead Pyun found himself working on a Mifune TV series under the tutelage of Kurosawa's Director of Photography, Takao Saito (Red Beard).
[12] During the production of the film, stuntman Jack Tyree was killed while doing a high fall stunt at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.
While performing a 78-foot fall in heavy costume and makeup, Tyree struck his airbag off center, resulting in a fatal impact.
[13] With the success of The Sword and the Sorcerer, Pyun was attached to several science fiction projects in 1984 including Total Recall, to be produced by Dino De Laurentiis at Universal Pictures, with a screenplay based on the Philip K. Dick story written by Ronald Shusett (Alien).
[16] Pyun's career took a more mainstream turn with the thriller Dangerously Close[17] and the romantic adventure film Down Twisted, starring Carey Lowell, Charles Rocket and Courteney Cox.
[22] In the early 1990s, Pyun made Nemesis with Olivier Gruner and Thomas Jane;[23] Brainsmasher... A Love Story followed in 1993 with Teri Hatcher and Andrew Dice Clay; and Mean Guns with Christopher Lambert and Ice-T in 1997.
In June 1991, Pyun's film Kickboxer 2, written by David Goyer (Ghost Rider, Blade, The Dark Knight), opened in theaters to mixed reviews.
[24] Other 1990s films include Knights with Kris Kristofferson, Kathy Long and Lance Henriksen; Dollman starring Tim Thomerson as a 13-inch-tall Dirty Harry-type cop from another planet; Raven Hawk with Rachel McLish and William Atherton; Spitfire with Henriksen, Sarah Douglas, Tim Thomerson and Kristie Phillips; Hong Kong '97 with Robert Patrick and Ming-Na Wen; Adrenalin: Fear the Rush with Christopher Lambert and Natasha Henstridge; Post Mortem with Charlie Sheen; Crazy Six with Rob Lowe, Mario Van Peebles and Burt Reynolds; Omega Doom with Rutger Hauer and Shannon Whirry; and Arcade with Megan Ward, Seth Green, Peter Billingsly and John Delancie.
Pyun also made his only episodic TV work to date for the NBC/Columbia Tri-Star show The Fifth Corner with Alex McArthur, Kim Delaney and James Coburn.
Pyun directed and produced Ticker for Artisan Entertainment in May 2000, which featured Steven Seagal, Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper, Jaime Pressly, Nas and Ice-T plus Chilli of the R&B group TLC.