He is well-known for his 1960 novel The Square, which depicts "the troubled life of a Korean prisoner of war (POW) who ends up taking his own life amid an intensified ideological rift in the post-Korean War era.
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he took refuge with his family to South Korea aboard a U.S. Navy landing ship.
[3] He did not finish his academic work; instead, he joined the army without completing the final semester of his college studies.
He served as an English interpreter and TI&E (troop information & education) officer for seven years until he was discharged in 1963.
This revolution overthrew President Syngman Rhee and Choi was one of the first novelists to publish in that era.