Jung is a versatile actor known for playing leading roles in a wide spectrum of genres, including blockbusters The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Cold Eyes (2013), The Divine Move (2014), The King (2017), Steel Rain (2017), Hunt (2022), 12.12: The Day (2023); dramas City of the Rising Sun (1999) and Mutt Boy (2003); historical epic Musa (2001); romance A Moment to Remember (2004); crime thrillers Asura: The City of Madness (2016) and Beasts Clawing at Straws (2020).

Jung served as the first Korean UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador from 2014 until his resignation in 2024, citing backlash over his advocacy for refugees.

[6] Jung was selected as an actor through street casting by former Sidus CEO Cha Seung-jae, who was the head of the production department at the film company Shin Cine at the time.

[6] Jung made his film debut in a leading role in 1994's The Fox with Nine Tails, one of the first Korean fantasy movies and the first to use computer-generated imagery.

The movie brought Jung widespread fame and started his rise to Korea's A-list and made him one of the most sought-after commercial models.

In this epic blockbuster, Jung played opposite Chinese star Zhang Ziyi and received wide exposure in Korea and beyond.

After spending time in 2002 directing a series of music videos[8] and appearing in a large number of commercials, Jung took on the eccentric lead role in Mutt Boy, the fifth film by director Kwak Kyung-taek.

[7] He portrayed a happily committed fireman in Sad Movie,[9] and a demon hunter seeking his lost love (played by Kim Tae-hee) in The Restless.

[10][11]Kim Jee-woon's "kimchi western" The Good, the Bad, the Weird inspired by Sergio Leone's work, would become one of Jung's most iconic roles.

[21][22][23][24] He portrayed the ruthless head of a criminal organization specializing in bank robbery, eluding detectives chasing him with uncanny dexterity.

[25] Jung next played a baduk player seeking revenge in The Divine Move,[26][27][28] followed by an adulterous university professor gradually losing his eyesight in Scarlet Innocence.

Jung played a crooked detective who attempts to save his terminally ill wife while arresting a corrupt town mayor.

[35] The actor's second movie shot in 2016 and released in 2017 was Han Jae-rim's political drama The King, whose plot revolves around a senior prosecutor being manipulated by an overambitious younger colleague connected to the mob.

[46] In 1995 Jung appeared in his first major television role in SBS drama series Asphalt Man, playing an aspiring race driver who leaves to United States to realize his dream.

In 2010 Jung returned to the small screen after 15 years' absence in the big-budget spy series Athena: Goddess of War, playing an NTS (National Anti-Terror Service) agent.

[57][58] And a year later, Jung was among four celebrities who directed a short film using smartphone Samsung Galaxy S4 with the theme "Meet a Life Companion."

In Jung's short Beginning of a Dream, Choi Jin-hyuk starred as an ordinary office worker who dreams of leaving his mundane existence and entering a world of fantasy; he is approached by a blue fish, rides a sports car at supersonic speed, sees a boy floating past holding a balloon, hangs out with a hippie band in their van, and meets himself as a young boy at a bus stop.

In it, a son hires an ultra-methodical hitman (played by Andy Choi) to assassinate his own father, but the killer however finds himself transfixed by the man's slow-moving and ordered life, and thus hesitates to carry through with his mission.

[65] In October 2012 Jung left Taurus Films, his agent since 2009, and established new talent agency Red Brick House appointing his manager of 10 years as CEO.

[3] On March 8, 2022, Jung donated ₩100 million won to the Hope Bridge Disaster Relief Association along with Lee Jung-jae to help the victims of the massive wildfire that started in Uljin, Gyeongbuk and has spread to Samcheok, Gangwon.

He made headlines in November 2016 during a screening of his film Asura: The City of Madness (2016) when he declared, "Park Geun-hye, step down," amid protests calling for the then-president’s impeachment.

[92][93][94][95] Birth of the child inspired speculation about whose surname he would take as the naming process varies for children born to parents who are not married.