Song made his film debut in The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996), and came to national prominence with a series of critically acclaimed performances, including No.

3 (1997), Joint Security Area (2000), Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013), The Attorney (2013), and A Taxi Driver (2017).

Song rose to international prominence for his performance in Parasite (2019), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Picture.

[10] In 1990, Song Kang-ho attended a performance of "Mr. Choi," a play by Yeonwoo Theater Company[note 1] in Busan.

The following year, at the age of 23, he moved to Seoul with the sole purpose of realizing his ambition, and he immediately headed to Yeonwoo Theater without any concrete plans.

Impressed by Song's dedication, Yi Sang-woo offered him the advice: "Yeonwoo Theater shouldn't be your ultimate goal.

Director Yi Sang-woo said, "I saw Song Kang-ho and Yoo Oh-sung, who were drinking all the time at my officetel in 1995, and thought, 'Everyone is going to be ruined like this.'"

Director Kim Jee-woon opened a new path for Song, who had been cast mainly as bullies and gangsters, by casting him as Young-min, the eldest son of Park In-hwan and Na Moon-hee, in his debut film, The Quiet Family In this film, Song showed the essence of comic cruelty acting.

[17] He then took on his first leading role as agent Lee Jang-gil, Han Suk-kyu's partner, in Kang Je-gyu's blockbuster thriller Shiri.

[16] However, it was director Kim Jee-woon who elevated Song into leading actor status in his film The Foul King.

The movie was released in cinemas in February 2000, with Song portraying Lim Dae-ho, a bank clerk turned professional wrestler, for which he did most of his own stunts.

[22] Song's performance in the Myung Film production Joint Security Area as North Korean Army sergeant Oh Joong-pil established him as one of South Korea's leading actors.

[24] In 2003, Song played a leading role as Park Doo-man, an incompetent rural detective, in another critically acclaimed hit, Memories of Murder, from young director Bong Joon-ho.

[25] It was the first of several critically acclaimed movies they would make together, with commentators describing Bong's relationship with Song as a "great actor-director collaboration".

[16] The following year he also took the lead in Antarctic Journal, a big-budget project by debut director Yim Pil-sung about an expedition in Antarctica that performed weakly at the box office.

In 2008, Song acted in Kim Jee-woon's western film set in 1930s Japanese-occupied Manchuria, The Good, the Bad, the Weird.

The film showcased an ensemble of stars with Lee Byung-hun as "the good", Jung Woo-sung as "the bad" and Song as "the weird".

[56][57][48] Later, Song reunited with director Kim Jee-woon after eight years period action film The Age of Shadows.

Song won Best Actor in 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards for his role as Lee Jung-chool, a Korean police captain that has been charged by the Japanese colonial government with rooting out members of the country's resistance movement.

It is based on a real-life story of German journalist Jürgen Hinzpeter's interactions with driver Kim Sa-bok.

[64][65][66] In 2019, Song starred as Kim Ki-taek in the critically acclaimed film Parasite, also directed by his frequent collaborator Bong Joon-ho.

[70] In the same year it was announced that Song co-starred in Kore-eda Hirokazu's debut Korean-language film Broker, alongside Lee Ji-eun, Bae Doona and Gang Dong-won.

[74] In the same year, Song reteamed for the fifth time with leading Korean director Kim Jee-woon on their upcoming feature film Cobweb.

[75] The scriptwriter of Cobweb was Shin Yeon-shick, who also wrote the screenplay for sports film One Win, in which Song also starred.

[79][80] Of course, winning an award from such a prestigious festival as Cannes is a great and happy moment, an unforgettable turning point of my life.

The meaning lies in unwaveringly doing the best I can [in future projects]Song also acted in title role in blockbuster disaster film Emergency Declaration.

[87][88] In 2022, it was reported that Song will act alongside Byun Yo-han in his television series debut with Uncle Samsik.

[98] In 2012, the Chungmuro pride trio, Song with Choi Min-sik and Seol Gyeong-gu, were selected as NH Nonghyup Bank's advertising models.

[102] Song Kang-ho married Hwang Jang-sook, a fellow theater actress, in November 1994, amid a time of great financial difficulty.