[1] Born in Seoul,[2] Choe Inho graduated from the Department of English Literature at Yonsei University and debuted as a writer in 1967 with the short story “Patient Apprentice” (Gyeonseup Hwanja, 견습환자), which was selected as one of the winners of the New Spring Literary Contest sponsored by The Chosun Ilbo.
This is clear in his own account of writing two stories, “The Boozer” (술꾼) (1970) and “A Stranger’s Room” (타인의 방) (1971), which earned him a reputation as one of the most controversial novelists of the 1970s.
[7] His early stories (Including "The Boozer," widely anthologized in English, which created general awareness of his career in 1970, though written earlier[7]) depicted harsh and satirical landscapes of the results of consumerism.
Choe focused on the people caught in the middle of a rapidly industrializing Korea, presenting a satirical picture of burgeoning consumerism and the resultant dehumanization.
Among his works, The Merchant of Joseon (Sangdo, 상도) and Emperor of The Sea (Haeshin, 해신) were dramatized and aired by MBC and KBS in 2001 and 2004, respectively, which won popularity not only among Koreans but also viewers across the globe.