He is known for his roles in television series Brain (2011), Soul Mechanic (2020), Beyond Evil (2021), and films Joint Security Area (2000), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Save the Green Planet!

[2] Impressed by his acting abilities, director Kim Jee-woon cast him in minor roles in The Foul King and his 30-minute internet film Coming Out.

[3] Shin first became a superstar with his role as a young North Korea soldier in Park Chan-wook's smash hit Joint Security Area in late 2000.

[4][3] In Park Chan-wook's acclaimed 2002 film, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Shin played a deaf man with bright green dyed hair who is driven by desperation to kidnap a young girl.

[10][11][12] His other film roles include: a developmentally disabled man in My Brother, a rural postman in A Letter From Mars, a suspect under interrogation in Murder, Take One,[13][14][15] an eccentric hitman in No Mercy for the Rude,[16] a struggling artist who makes an unwise bet in The Devil's Game,[17] a sickly cuckolded husband in Thirst,[18] a macho cop in Foxy Festival,[19] and a music teacher having an affair in Cafe Noir.

[42] The same year, he was cast in the comedy film Inseparable Bros.[43] He returned to the small screen in the Korean remake of British crime drama Luther.