[1][2][3][4] Kang began her acting career as a child and gained national recognition with A High School Student's Diary on KBS 1TV (1983–1984), and the comedy films Whale Hunting 2 (1985) and Mimi and Cheolsu's Youth Sketch (1987).

In 1989, she received the Bronze St. George at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival for Come Come Come Upward (1989), which further established her "world star" title.

Kang took years off between film appearances and switched to acting on the small screen, where she achieved moderate success for starring in Ladies of the Palace (2001–02) on SBS TV.

After collapsing from cerebral hemorrhage at her home in southern Seoul on May 5, 2022, Kang was transported to hospital and stayed in the ICU for recovery.

[citation needed] Her career breakthrough happened when she took on a lead role as the vulnerable teenager Ok-nyo in the Im Kwon-taek-directed movie The Surrogate Woman.

In the film, Kang played the role of Sun-nyeo, a young student who seeks refuge in a monastery to escape from her troubled home; she studies to become a nun and later falls in love.

[3] Kang won the Bronze St. George at the 16th Moscow International Film Festival for her role in Come Come Come Upward,[10] establishing further credit as Korea's "world star".

[12] In the 1990s, Kang appeared in a number of movies, the most notable of which are Jang Sun-woo's Road to the Racetrack (1991), That Woman, That Man (1993) by Kim Ui-seok, Lee Myung-se's Their Last Love Affair (1996), and Im Sang-soo's debut, Girls' Night Out (1998).

That Woman, That Man was a commercial success at the box office, and she earned another Baeksang Arts Award for Most Popular Actress (her first being in 1990 for her performance in All That Falls Has Wings).

She was given a starring role in Ladies of the Palace (여인 천하; Yeo-in cheon-ha), a historical drama that aired on SBS TV.

Jeonju International Film Festival, which incidentally concluded on May 7, 2022, commemorated Kang's legacy through social media, writing: "The Jeonju International Film Festival commemorates the passing of the late actress Kang Soo-yeon, who was a shining star of Korean cinema.