Kim Bong-hoe began his career as a fashion model at the 2007 Seoul Fashion Week and for jeans brand Evisu in 2008. He made his acting debut in the queer coming-of-age film Just Friends? in 2009 under the stage name Seo Ji-hoo. His management agency later changed his stage name to Yeon Woo-jin.

After playing a teacher in 2010 daily drama All My Love, he started to gain recognition as the youngest brother in hit 2011 family drama Ojakgyo Family. Then in his first lead role, Yeon’s character falls in love with the daughter of his brother’s murderer in the 4-episode Drama Special Just an Ordinary Love Story.

In 2012, Yeon was cast as a mysterious villain in the period fantasy-romance Arrange and the Magistrate. He then reunited with Arrange director Kim Sang-ho in 2013, to again play the protagonist’s rival in the gangster melodrama When a Man Falls in Love.

Yeon then appeared in Missing You, an episode in the five-part omnibus drama Secret Love starring members of the girl group Kara. This was followed by leading roles in two romantic comedy series: as a commitment-phobic plastic surgeon in Marriage, Not Dating (2014) and as a vengeful office manager-turned-attorney in Divorce Lawyer in Love (2015).