[3][4] He gained widespread fame with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers (2009), which also earned him the Best New Actor – Television trophy at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards.

[citation needed] While attending Namseong Elementary School, he was selected for the junior football class of manager and ex-professional player Cha Bum-kun.

[14] Lee started auditioning and landed minor roles in several television shows such as Romance (2002), Nonstop (2000–2006) and Recipe of Love (2005).

However, as his stage name was pronounced and written in the same way as the Korean word "imin", which means "immigration", he later said it was difficult to find himself in internet search results.

[12][17] Upon recovery, Lee received his first leading role in the high-school drama Mackerel Run (2007), but the series was reduced to only eight episodes due to low viewership ratings.

[18] In 2008, he appeared in television dramas Get Up and I Am Sam, as well as movies Public Enemy Returns and Our School's E.T.. During the filming of the latter, he became good friends with actor Kim Su-ro.

[19] Lee's breakthrough came in 2009 with the lead role of Gu Jun-pyo in KBS2' Boys Over Flowers, the Korean adaptation of the popular shōjo manga of the same name.

"[24] In 2011, he took on the role of the titular character in action drama City Hunter as Lee Yun-Seong, which was loosely based on Tsukasa Hojo's popular manga of the same name.

"[37] Premiering on October 9, 2013, The Heirs enjoyed immense popularity both locally, with a peak rating of 28.6%, and internationally, having over one billion hits on the Chinese streaming service IQIYI.

[47] Lee received the Prime Minister's Commendation at the 5th Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards for his contribution to Koren Wave.

[54][55] In 2016, Lee appeared in the action comedy film Bounty Hunters, directed by Shin Terra; his co-stars were Wallace Chung, Tiffany Tang, Jeremy Tsui, Karena Ng and Louis Fan.

[57][58] Later that year, Lee made his television comeback in the fantasy romance as Hae Joon Jae The Legend of the Blue Sea alongside actress Jun Ji-hyun, which was another success.

[61] In 2019, Lee was cast in the SBS-broadcast and Netflix-distributed fantasy romance The King: Eternal Monarch written by The Heirs screenwriter Kim Eun-sook.

[70][71] The King: Eternal Monarch was listed as the most popular Korean drama on Netflix in India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore and one of the top two in the U.S. in 2020.

[72][73] In October 2020, Lee Min-ho launched the YouTube channel "leeminho film" where he serves as executive producer and creative director.

In August 2023, Hugo Boss launched a new collection, featuring Lee, Patrick Mahomes, Naomi Campbell, Matteo Berrettini, and Suki Waterhouse in its campaign.

The site donated $50,000 to help create wells in Malawi through non-profit organization Charity: Water; the sum was gathered by Lee and his fans.

[94][95] PROMIZ has also raised funds and contributed donations to causes such as Good Neighbours,[96] World Water Day,[97] the "Transparent Umbrella Project" [98] and the "Making Warm Winter for Both Bodies and Hearts" campaign.

In previous years, his Chilean fan club donated to the humanitarian organization Patagonia Compassion and also participated in several other charitable causes.

[105] In 2006, Lee's acting career was put on hold for a year following a serious car wreck, which occurred while riding with fellow actor Jung Il-woo and two other friends.