Adopted by a French family as a child, Placé entered politics as a member of the Radical Party of the Left before joining Europe Ecology – The Greens.

[1] Although his birth certificate states he was born Kwon Oh-bok[2] (Korean: 권오복) in Seoul on 12 March 1968, Placé himself has expressed doubts about the date because of his situation as an orphan; at the time of his adoption by a French family in 1975, he reportedly appeared younger than his official age.

[15][16] In September 2017, after being mugged in the streets of Paris,[17] he publicly expressed his desire to put his political career on hold, thus declining to stand in the then-upcoming senatorial elections.

[19] In April 2018, following issues with alcoholism and a publicized incident in a Paris nightclub, Placé resigned from his position as president of UDE.

[21] In 2013, an investigation by newspaper Le Canard enchaîné revealed that Placé owed more than €18,000 to the region of Île-de-France, mostly in unpaid traffic fines.

[18] On the night between 4 and 5 April 2018, an intoxicated Placé was arrested outside a Paris nightclub by French police and kept into custody for 37 hours.

[3][25] In September 2018, a Paris court found him guilty of "acts of violence" and gave him a €1,000 fine and a three-month suspended sentence,[26][27] while dismissing the charge of "racial insults".

[26] Although Placé was born in South Korea and spent part of his childhood there, he claims little relation to his birth country and credits his identity to education within the "School of the [French] Republic".

[1] After being adopted in 1975 by a French family he describes as politically "Gaullist", he did not set foot in South Korea again until an official visit in 2011.

[28] After the end of what Placé calls a "love story", he began a relationship with another Green politician, French Parliament member Éva Sas.