But on 3 Body Problem, the sprawling Netflix sci-fi series about an impending alien invasion which promises to upend the lives of everyone on Earth, Hong plays Jin Cheng, a wildly-driven theoretical physicist and one of the “Oxford Five,” a group of college friends-slash-geniuses particularly affected by the looming alien threat. As Jin, Hong is responsible for convincingly delivering convoluted dialogue about getting a probe to one-percent light speed and other such complex endeavors. “I did want to get at least a foundational understanding [of the physics involved] so…I could communicate the intention,” she says. “Like, why are we doing this?”

So Hong did her homework: She read the Cixin Liu trilogy on which the series is based; she spoke with the show’s physicist consultant; she watched a Ted Talk by the physicist Brian Greene, “Is our universe the only universe?” and she started to wrap her head around the idea that although humans basically only perceive three dimensions, there are actually 10, plus time. “We're made up of all these molecules that aren't even technically connected. We're mostly empty space. If someone calls you an airhead, you can be like, ‘Bitch, we all are!’ We're all just held together by vibrations or energy.”

She and I are meeting in only two dimensions. The 29-year-old actress is Zooming in from her hotel room in London, wearing plaid pants and a fuzzy lavender sweater, two weeks before 3 Body Problem premieres. It is very possible that after the series lands on Netflix, Hong is about to be catapulted into a very different sort of universe from the one in which she has long resided, as a near-total unknown New Zealand native who’d never even been to London before she moved there for nine months to shoot this show.

In April 2021, Hong received an audition request through a casting agent for a project called “Untitled Benioff.” (As in David Benioff, one-half of the Game of Thrones showrunning team.) At the time, she was doing children’s theater, touring around AllTerra, New Zealand. “Very rough and tumble,” she says of the operation: just three actors, “packing in and out of two schools per day.” Meanwhile, she submitted a self-tape for 3BP, performing “this really crazy, funny scene in some game world, and then this beautiful, nuanced, dramatic scene between two people. I was like, Is this really the same show? What the hell? Right off the bat, I knew there was some very cool duality or spectrum of storytelling in this.” 

But her expectations stayed low. With self-tapes like that, she says, “You send it out into the ether and expect nothing back.” She attributes some of this attitude to being a Kiwi, the other-side-of-the-worldness of it all. “I think people in New Zealand tend to prioritize quality of life much more than ambition. It's not to say that we're not ambitious, it's just that I'm a Libra. I like to have some balance, and I think culturally we all like to have that balance.” Success in a place like Hollywood “does seem harder” from there. “It just seems further away geographically and metaphorically. But I like that.”

Before her audition, Hong had never heard of Liu’s books and was only dimly aware of the wattage of the people she was auditioning for: Benioff and D.B. Weiss, of Game of Thrones mega fame, and Alexander Woo, a True Blood producer. “I had only actually watched two seasons of Game of Thrones,” she says. “I think it helped… because if I was [a superfan], then I would be even more nervous than I was. And I was already pretty nervous to meet them.” After a four-month long process—more Zooms, chemistry reads—Hong landed the part. She had three weeks to pack up all her stuff, read as much of the books as she could manage (she knocked out the first one for plot and skimmed the third, where her character first appears) and move to London. To help get into character, she made a Spotify playlist for Jin with some very on-the-nose songs—Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien,” “My Universe” by BTS—whose title is a string of outer-space emoji.

“It was overwhelming for sure,” says Hong. She didn’t even know what it meant to be number one on the call sheet—the star of the show or film, essentially; on 3 Body Problem, it was Hong—until Weiss told her. (“He went, ‘Oh, you have a lot of shoot days,’” she says. “I was like, ‘That’s all right. I like to keep busy.’”) 

Almost immediately, she was thrown “into three months of solid blue screen work,” trying to envision something epic and magnificent against a mostly-blank background. “I'm not going to lie, it's fucking weird,” she says. Fortunately for Hong, “because of how many eggs Netflix put in this basket” (read: the show was very expensive) there were actually real sets to work with while shooting these largely-CGI sequences. “You’d walk in one day and there’d be half a castle there,” she says. “And the next day, the castle’s taken down. They’ve completely covered the entire studio floor with sand.” The studio was illuminated with “300 light panels, which could be individually programmed so that you could have a beautiful sunset and you could adjust how much purple or orange you could make sun go across the sky,” she says. “You could see and feel and taste and hear a lot, actually. So it was almost like we were going into the game world ourselves.”

About that game world: In the series, Jin gets obsessed with playing a mysterious virtual reality game which makes her feel as if she is immersed in a universe that is always on the verge of collapse; her task is to crack the hidden code that destroys the planet and avert catastrophe. To a reasonable person this might seem like an unreasonable thing to do—for starters, the headset Jin wears to play has been found next to the bodies of freshly-dead scientists, and Jin is supposed to be on high alert for her own safety—but Jin’s curiosity is, to put it gently, unhinged. She can’t let the mystery go.

“Here's what I've learned about Jin Cheng. Once she finds something that she wants to solve, a problem or some mission, she must get to the end of it. She must find the answer. She must complete the mission, no matter what,” says Hong. “She's obsessive when it comes to new things or things she doesn't quite understand, because she's like, Wait, but I'm the smartest person in the room. I should understand everything.”

Hong imagines some of Jin’s determination is rooted in being a woman in a male-dominated space, someone who knows hers is a singular intellect. “She would be a very rare case of not just a woman—but a young woman—going to the top of her field.”

To unearth the humanity beneath Jin’s work-obsessed surface, Hong turned to the books, where the nuanced portrayals of Jin’s grief brought Hong to tears. It reminded Hong that, despite Jin’s ambition and professional prowess, “she's still this really soft human that feels everything to the core and lets herself feel everything.”

Hong wants this for herself, too: To hold on to her sense of humanity no matter what comes next. As nourishing as it is, her work as an actor “is not who I am as a human being,” she says. “I am also a daughter, I'm also a sister. I'm also the child of an immigrant.” She has no plans to relocate from her current residence, which she shares with a roommate, or to abandon Auckland, which she loves for its “really rich Pan-Asian arts community… I'm not wanting to leave [that] just yet.” She’s got another New Zealand project due out soon—the body horror Grafted, directed by Sasha Rainbow—whose premiere was, totally by chance, the same night as 3BP, just on the other side of the world. She doesn’t know yet if 3BP will get a second season (“my fingers and toes are crossed”). 

3BP is, in part, a meditation on what it takes to survive. For Hong, her ability to take all of this as it comes, piece by piece, is crucial to her own endurance. “So even when I got a callback audition [for 3BP], I was like, It is great to make it this far. Wow, I'm so grateful for this experience. That's where it ends. That's the end of the line, but good to be here,” she says. “I think [that’s] an attitude that's necessary for survival.”

Photographer: Darrel Hunter | Stylist: Mui-Hai Chu | Hair: Nao Kawakami | Makeup: Kenny Leung | Location: The Langham, London

What are Sophons?

First, a quick rundown of what exactly humanity is up against. In episode 5, genius physicist Jin and cutthroat operative Wade discover that the San-Ti have been learning about human life and science for decades using a pair of "sophons." These are proton-sized (a.k.a smaller than you can even imagine) multidimensional supercomputers that are tasked with spying on mankind and sabotaging our scientific and technological advancements so humans will be less of a threat once the San-Ti arrive in 400 years. Every particle accelerator on the globe being hacked? Sophons. Every screen in the world reading "You are bugs"? Them too.

In addition to their surveillance and tech capabilities, the sophons can also alter the human mind and vision. They put the countdown in Auggie's (and many other scientists, including Vera's) heads, and they also made everyone on the planet see the stars flicker and the Inception/Doctor Strange vision of the ground reflected on the sky and a giant eye looking at them. (Also, if this isn't confusing enough, the warrior avatar in the San-Ti's VR recruitment game, played by Sea Shimooka, is also credited as Sophon.)

So, the San-Ti have insane tech, the ability to alter human perception, and a possibly 60-year head start. What do the humans come up with?

What is the Wallfacer Project?

In the finale, the U.N. announces the start of the Wallfacer Project, in which three individuals are given the authority and unlimited resources to develop strategic plans against the San-Ti without having to divulge their true intentions to anyone. This is designed to utilize the biggest advantage humans have over the San-Ti: the ability to lie. The San-Ti communicate via thought, so whatever they think is instantaneously known by the other person; when Mike Evans introduces them to the concept of lying and storytelling in episode 4, they don't understand at all. In fact, that's the moment when they get spooked and decide that humans are too dangerous to work with, and instead we should be exterminated like the dishonest, destructive "bugs" we are. And since sophons can't read minds, lying remains the one advantage humans have over the invading aliens.

In a meeting with the world's leaders, where the sophons are very likely watching, the three Wallfacers are announced: decorated military general Hou Bolin, esteemed professor Leyla Ariç, and...Saul Durand, an ordinary civilian (well, he's a physics PhD, but still) and member of the Oxford Five. The decision confuses experts and pundits around the world, who have never heard of this guy. It also confuses Saul himself, who, as we've seen throughout the season, lives his life with as little responsibility as possible. When he questions the U.N.'s Secretary-General about the decision, all she says is that "the enemy knows why" he was chosen. Since the San-Ti thinks he's special (and repeatedly try to kill him), they likely see him as a threat.

Why is Saul so important?

At the start of the finale, Saul wakes up to a relatively normal morning. His latest hookup engages him in some debate on whether humans living now should care about the San-Ti invasion in 400 years (he argues no), before a random car's self-driving feature engages and mows her down. He's picked up by Detective Clarence "Da" Shi, who tells Saul that he was the one meant to die in the car accident, and that someone's targeting him. Fast forward to later that day after the Wallfacer ceremony, and Saul's shot by a sniper outside the U.N. Thankfully, he was wearing a bulletproof suit courtesy of Da Shi, so he's fine.

In the hospital, Saul demands to see the shooter that the police apprehended. (Though Saul had turned down the Wallfacer role, it seems like the position's non-revokable.) The shooter is a San-Ti cultist, who only says "sorry I didn't aim for your head." Saul speaks to the secretary-general again, and she points out that it matters that people (and the always-watching San-Ti) believe that Saul is a Wallfacer. After all, he could just be pretending not to accept the position. All Saul's left with is "you'll know [why you were chosen] when the time is right."

So does Saul remain a Wallfacer? Short answer...yes, but it's not like he has a choice. The real question is whether he'll rise to the occasion. Through all the time we've spent with Saul over eight episodes, we know he's a loyal friend and a talented researcher, but beyond that he's a cynic who'd rather spend his days high and sleeping with women whose names he often doesn't remember. However, we have also seen that he is truly brilliant when he actually uses his brain, so it's possible he'll end up being humanity's secret weapon. One hint in lieu of spoilers: Remember when Saul met with Ye Wenjie in episode 7, and she told him that random joke about Einstein in heaven with the violin? At the end of their conversation she says, "I hope my joke doesn't cause you any trouble." Keep that in mind for later seasons.

Does Project Staircase succeed?

Before the Wallfacer Project was announced, the big mission the show centered on was Wade's plan to send a probe to the San-Ti fleet. It was a pretty farfetched idea proposed by Jin, where a capsule with an attached radiation sail would be propelled to light speed by a series of nuclear explosions, getting faster and faster as each bomb detonates. Since the capsule would have to be very light to pull this off, and Wade was dead-set on sending a living human to meet the aliens, he decides the only option is a cryogenically-frozen human brain. If the mission succeeds, the San-Ti will want to revive the brain to get any possible information on the human mind, and if they make the brain a new body, the person will find out how to send intel on the San-Ti back to earth. (Seems like a lot of ifs and a big assumption that the San-Ti would be benevolent hosts, but OK, go ahead and try it.)

Try it they did, but in a devastating blow, one of the brackets on the radiation sail breaks off and the capsule goes off course, in both an unknown direction and not anywhere close to a high-enough speed. The plan was wild from the start, but the tragic bent comes from whose brain is in the capsule: Will Downing, one of the Oxford Five and the man who Jin just realized may actually be the love of her life. Will received a fatal cancer diagnosis at the start of the series, and when he learned about Staircase he decided to end his life (or maybe just pause it?) with the hope of saving humanity. Though Jin points out in the final scene that it'll be millions of years before Will's capsule leaves the Milky Way, there's still a chance that he'll have a role to play in the series's future. (Hint hint, read the books if you want spoilers.)

What will the San-Ti do next? (And how does it involve Tatiana?)

As if the failure of Project Staircase isn't enough of a bummer to end season 1 on, there are also two scenes that show that the San-Ti have even more terrifying plans for the war against humanity. Throughout the series, the aliens have had an especially chilling human helper: Tatiana. The mysterious assassin grew up in the San-Ti worshipping cult and is entirely devoted to them, but she's initially abandoned by the San-Ti when they discover that humans can lie. However, in episode 7, Sophon (the VR avatar) appears to her and tells her that they need her.

They send her to the abandoned Red Coast Base in China, where Ye Wenjie first made contact with the San-Ti all those years ago. Ye has also traveled to the base as she reckons with her decision that ended up possibly dooming humanity. In their emotional conversation, Tatiana comforts Ye, telling her that she fulfilled her purpose, and promises "something beautiful" for the physicist. Viewers are left with the two women watching the sunset together, before Tatiana kills Ye offscreen. (Though the scene's a bit ambiguous, Da Shi confirms that Ye did die.)

Tatiana also briefly shows up in the finale, as she's sent a silver VR headset by the San-Ti. We don't see what happens when she puts it on, but it's assumed that they're briefing her on next steps. Sophon (again, the VR avatar) also gets a cool standoff with Wade as the boss is aboard a private jet. She shares her condolences that Project Staircase failed, before saying that the San-Ti hope to meet Wade one day if his new hibernation tech works. (He and assumedly some other head scientists plan to hibernate to extend their lives until the San-Ti come.) She also says that Wade's "a part of [their] plan" and that they'll be watching him every day until the end of his life. Sophon even appears as a full-body vision and makes Wade see his own corpse with the eyes gouged out. A fun way to strike fear of the San-Ti into his heart and ours.

What will happen in season 2?

The final scene of season 1 is a bittersweet conclusion to a TV show where the entire world is pushed into existential crisis. Jin and Saul are mourning the loss (physically, if not literally) of their friend Will, and drowning their sorrows realizing that humanity is extremely outmatched. As Jin points out, humans are in fact bugs compared to the San-Ti, and left spinning their heels after their ambitious plan failed. However, Da Shi gives them a pep talk by pointing out something about bugs: no matter how much humans try to exterminate them and stamp them out, bugs aren't going anywhere. It's like that saying: At the end of time, all that will be left is cockroaches. Humanity is resilient, and if we don't let some existential crisis keep us down, we'll endure.

You'll have to read Cixin Liu's book trilogy to get the full spoilers for the future of the TV series, but here's some basic details: After the start of the Wallfacer Project, the next book, The Dark Forest, follows Saul as he reckons with his new assignment and eventually becomes an integral part of the conflict against the San-Ti. Meanwhile, the San-Ti come up with their own response to the Wallfacer Project, called the Wallbreakers. (I leave you with some curiosity about that fantastic name.) Jin also remains involved in the events going forward; as hinted by season 1's final scene, Saul and Jin will likely get plenty of screen time as the remaining members of the Oxford Five. The book character that's closest to Auggie (Wang Miao) doesn't get much to do past the events already covered in the show, but it's possible that the TV's version could find a reason for her to come back.

With season 1 ending on an existential cliffhanger (give or take four centuries), viewers are left wondering just where this inventive series could go next. Below, we've gathered everything we know so far about a possible 3 Body Problem season 2.

Has '3 Body Problem' been renewed for Season 2?

Not yet. The epic sci-fi series arrived on Netflix on March 21, 2024, and the streamer usually waits on a couple weeks of ratings to determine whether to green light a renewal. However, there are high hopes for this series to become the streaming giant's next mega-hit (see Stranger Things, Bridgerton, Squid Game, Wednesday) so news of a possible season 2 could come out sooner rather than later.

When would '3 Body Problem' season 2 come out?

The length of a Netflix show's hiatus can be harder to predict than the cycle of stable and chaotic eras, but in a SXSW interview with Collider, co-creators Benioff, Weiss, and Woo revealed that they have already started working on season 2. They explained that the first two seasons of 3BP will follow the arcs of the first two novels of the trilogy, and they added that filming on season 2 could start as early as this fall.

"For Season 2, we’ve got better than a rough idea. We’re much farther along with that plan than rough idea stages," Weiss said.

Even if that fall filming schedule holds up, a series this intricate and VFX-heavy will take several years to bring together. Odds are, the earliest we could see 3 Body Problem season 2 is spring 2026.

Which of the cast would return for '3 Body Problem' season 2?

Most of the main cast of 3 Body Problem are expected to return in season 2, including: Jovan Adepo (Saul Durand), Eiza González (Auggie Salazar), Jess Hong (Jin Cheng), Saamer Usmani (Raj Varma), Benedict Wong (Clarence “Da” Shi), Liam Cunningham (Thomas Wade), Marlo Kelly (Tatiana Haas), and Sea Shimooka (Sophon).

The return of the '60s era cast (Zine Tseng as young Ye Wenjie and Ben Schnetzer as young Mike Evans) will depend on whether the show plans on more flashbacks to show how the San-Ti gathered so many human followers. Some faces we know we likely won't see outside of flashback: Alex Sharp (Will Downing), John Bradley (Jack Rooney), Rosalind Chao (Ye Wenjie), and Jonathan Pryce (Mike Evans).

What would happen in '3 Body Problem' season 2?

After season 1 pretty much followed the arc of the eponymous first novel of the trilogy, season 2 is set to adapt the second novel, named The Dark Forest. The Dark Forest picks up around where season 1 leaves off, as the UN institutes the Wallfacer Project to strategize against the Trisolarians (the alien race called the San-Ti in the television series). The Wallfacers are tasked with holding their true plans only in their heads, as the one advantage humans have against the aliens is that we can lie and obscure our intentions, while the aliens can only communicate their true thoughts. In response, the extraterrestrials choose some select human allies to work against the Wallfacers, with the help of all the intel collected by the sophons, which can spy on every corner of the earth (except reading human minds). Throughout the centuries (yes, there is a time jump) of preparation for the aliens' arrival, Luo Ji (a.k.a. Saul Durand in the show) takes the lead as a reluctant Wallfacer who eventually becomes integral to the conflict.

There are also several show characters whose futures are left open-ended. The San-Ti's ally and assassin, Tatiana, will remain a major threat after the aliens sent her a new headset in the season 1 finale. Also, though Project Staircase failed, Jin and Will (or Will's frozen brain) can still play a big role in the coming seasons, especially if Will's capsule is ever picked up by the San-Ti despite going off course. Even Auggie could pop back up, though as of the end of season 1 she was content using her nanofiber technology to help others, particularly filtering drinking water in a Mexican village.

One thing we do know: With season 2 sticking close to the source book, viewers will have a multi-season wait to see the San-Ti in the flesh (or whatever their bodies are made of) when they finally arrive on Earth. Speaking of multiple seasons...

How many seasons could '3 Body Problem' have?

In their interview with Collider, the series' creators also discussed how they would approach filming the final book of the trilogy, Death's End. The trio admitted that they are considering splitting the third book into two TV seasons for a pragmatic reason: Death's End clocks in at 605 pages, compared to The Three-Body Problem's 400-page length.

“The third book is massive. It’s twice as long, I think, as the other two books,” Benioff said. “So maybe that’s one season, maybe it’s two. But, you know, I think we’d need at least three, maybe four seasons to tell the whole story.”

In conversations with innovators like Tina Knowles, Diana Flores, and Nia Batts, power took the shape of pursuing one's own goals with abandon while creating equal opportunities for others whenever possible. In quieter moments between events, women from all industries swapped stories where power was a manifestation of confidence, grit, and an acceptance of change. Dorsey founder Meg Strachan thought of power as acting authentically in every situation; Mary Pryor, co-founder of Cannaclusive, equated power with inner peace. No two women found the same meaning in the word—and many noted that power has its downsides, too. Everyone agreed it's more deeply personal than the dictionary lets on.

Ahead, entrepreneurs, actresses, and creatives explain what power means to them. Forget stale definitions: Their takes are much more inspiring.

Tina Knowles, vice chairwoman of Cécred: "Power means fuel for me. It means that I am self sufficient and I feel strong and that I can put out good energy."

Mary Pryor, co-founder of Cannaclusive: "Peace. Too many people chase after things that kind of cause you to forget that you need peace to be powerful."

Jesse Draper, founding partner at Halogen Ventures: "Power is the confidence to use your voice, smarts, and energy unapologetically."

Richa Moorjani, actress: “Power to me is uplifting others.”

Courteney Cox, actress, director, and founder of Homecourt: "Power means confidence to me. It means that you feel good about yourself and feel that you could do anything."

Nia Batts, investor and activist: "Power to me means opportunity. I think people try to hoard it, and I think it's interesting when those who have it make sure others do as well. When we have conversations regarding equity, power also comes into play. And for me [there is] an opportunity for us to understand, as women, as business leaders, how we can take the privilege that we have [...] and figure out how to make the world more equitable."

Meg Strachan, founder of Dorsey: “To me, power is operating from a place that feels authentically you through thick and thin.”

Irene Liu, CEO and co-founder of Chiyo: "I think power is understanding how the system works to know where you're going to play."

Kathleen Griffith, author and founder of Build Like a Woman: "Power means to claim and then unapologetically go after what you want. This comes from designing an authentic, integrated life that is true to you and you alone."

Ingrid Murra, founder of Two Front: "Power is unlocking the ability to make change. Making change is real power."

Rupi Kaur, poet: “Power means being able to use my voice and have my voice be heard. It’s stepping into my light and knowing my worth while acknowledging others' light as well. We shine brighter when we shine together.”

Denise Vasi, founder of Maed Beauty: "To me, true power lies in confidently embracing your identity, standing firm in your beliefs, sparking positive change through your actions, and lending support to encourage other women to step into their power."

Taye Hansberry, founder and creator of By Taye: "There is power in doing exactly what you want to do and creating a life in which you allow yourself the space to do just that."

The cast of Physical: 100 season 2 includes several superstars of both national and international fame, including legendary athletes, Olympic gold medalists, pro bodybuilders, and top influencers. And like with season 1, several contestants are introducing little-known sports and professions to a global audience. Read on to get to know some of the standout cast of Physical: 100 season 2, and find out where they stand at the end of Round 2.5.

Warning: Spoilers for Physical: 100 season 2, episodes 1-5.

Active

Amotti

Amotti is a Crossfitter who hosts his own fitness YouTube channel, which has more than 145,000 subscribers. He's best known for training at the popular Sweat on Seoul gym, which counts several fitness YouTubers as members, including Physical: 100 season 1 cast members Yun Sung-bin and Caro.

Though he was eliminated when his team lost to Team Kim Dong-hyun in Round 2, he was later chosen by Jung Ji-hyuk to rejoin the competition with the "Avengers" team.

Andre Jin

Andre Jin Coquillard was born in Seoul to an American father and South Korean mother, former model Kim Dong-su. He is the first naturalized foreign player on South Korea's national rugby team, and he represented the country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He also played rugby in college while attending U.C. Berkeley.

Chang Yong-heung

Chang is a rugby player who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens as part of the South Korean national team. He also won a silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games.

Gibson

Gibson Kim is a U.S. Army major stationed at Camp Humphreys in South Korea. The powerlifting enthusiast also runs a family YouTube channel with his wife, 5-year-old son, and 2-year-old daughter.

Ham Young-jin

Ham is a police officer and member of the Korean national judo team.

Hong Beom-seok

Hong is a familiar face to Physical: 100 viewers since he's appearing on the show for the second time. He's a former firefighter who won first place in the 2018 World Firefighters Championships, and he was a special forces soldier in the Korean military for 10 years. He has also appeared on the shows Steel Troops 3, The Soldiers, and King of Wrestling.

Joo Min-kyung

Joo is a professional arm wrestler and member of the Korean national arm wrestling team. He's won several gold medals in national competitions, and he previously won the JTBC competition show Over the Top.

Jung Dae-jin

Jung is a sports model and bodybuilder who goes by the nickname "Superbody Jin." He has won several competitions, including scoring at the Pro level three times at NABBA Korea, the country's biggest fitness contest. He also runs his own fitness YouTube channel, which has featured appearances from several of the other Physical: 100 season 2 contestants over the past few months.

Jung Ji-hyun

Jung is a former wrestler who won a gold medal while representing the South Korean national wrestling team at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. He's currently a YouTuber who also runs a wrestling and circuit training gym in Seoul's Gangnam neighborhood.

Though his team was eliminated against Team Lee Jae-yoon in Round 2, he later came first in Round 2.5 and was able to form his own "Avengers" team of fallen players.

Jung You-in

Jung is a professional swimmer and former member of the Korean national swimming team. She has won 18 gold medals in national competitions, per her Physical: 100 intro. She finished second in the 100m freestyle at the Olympic trials, and while she did not join the Korean team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she did serve as a commentator for the broadcaster SBS. She was also a regular cast member on the variety show Sporty Sisters.

Justin Harvey

Harvey is a South African actor who made his big-screen debut in the Korean thriller The Witch: Part 2. The Other One. He also appeared in the 2020 variety show Welcome, First Time in Korea? In an interview with The Korea Herald, he said his goal is "to be the main lead in a Korean production as a foreigner, speaking in Korean, just like [Decision to Leave actress] Tang Wei."

Kang Cheong-myeong

Kang is a Coast Guard officer who has previous experience on Korean TV. He was also part of season 2 of the "military survival program" Steel Troops.

Kim Dong-hyun

In the sports world, Kim is best known as a retired MMA fighter, who competed in the UFC's welterweight class and earned many nicknames, including "Stun Gun" and "Cicada." He's since become well known in Korea's entertainment industry, appearing on countless variety shows including Amazing Saturday, Law of the Jungle, Master in the House, The Return Of Superman, The Great Escape, and The Iron Squad.

Kim Hyeong-kyu

Kim is a professional heavyweight boxer who has won 12 gold medals at the Korea Championships and 2 gold medals at the Asian Boxing Championships, per his Instagram caption. He is also the CEO of his own gym, called Hunk Boxing.

Kim Min-su

Kim is a bodybuilder who is perhaps better known by his nickname, the "Korean Thanos." He's a Pro in the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation (IFBB), and he competed in the prestigious Mr. Olympia competition in 2020. He's also a YouTuber, former Special Forces officer, and an amateur rugby player.

Though his team was eliminated when they lost Round 2 to Team Andre Jin, he was chosen by Jung Ji-hyun to join the "Avengers" team after Round 2.5.

Lee Jae-yoon

Lee is a Toronto-born actor who made his debut in the 2000s. He's best known for starring in dramas including Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo, Mother, Alice, Another Miss Oh, Cruel City, Ghost, and My Love By My Side. He's also a fitness enthusiast who has a brown belt in jiu-jitsu.

Lee Jang-kun

Lee is a Korean national athlete and Asian Games medalist in kabaddi, a contact team sport which originated in India. On Physical: 100, he shares that some of his nicknames from competing in India include the "Korean King" and "BTS of India." He's also appeared on variety shows including King of Wrestling and Let's Play Soccer.

Though his team lost to Team Hong Beom-seok in Round 2, he was chosen by Jung Ji-hyun to rejoin the competition with the "Avengers" team.

Lee Won-hee

Lee is a legendary Judo champion, who won the gold medal at several competitions, including the 2004 Athens Olympics, 2003 Asian Championships, 2003 World Championships, and 2006 Asian Games. As shared on Physical: 100, he was nicknamed "Mr. Ippon" for winning 43 games by ippon, out of a 48-game winning streak. He has also been a professor at his alma matter Yongin University, as well as the head coach of the South Korean Women's Judo National Team.

Lim Soo-jin

Lim is an IFBB Pro bodybuilder who has won multiple competitions including NABBA Korea and Haeundae Body Fitness. She documents her fitness journey on Instagram, and also runs a separate account for her puppy.

Park Da-sol

Park is a national judo athlete who won a gold medal at the 2021 Asian Championship, as well as a silver medal at the 2018 Asian Games. She's also a member of the digital content agency and sports YouTube channel 700Creators.

Park Ha-yan

Park is a former national handball player, who documents her day-to-day life as a fitness enthusiast and dog mom on Instagram. She has also been featured in a Nike Seoul campaign, featuring co-star Kim Dong-hyun and trainer Yerin Kim.

Park Woo-jin

Park is a South Korean Coast Guard officer, who's part of a rescue team and was previously a navy marine rescue officer, per his Instagram bio.

Power Who Yami

Yami is a cosplayer who does not have a large digital presence, other than an Instagram he started earlier this year, where he shares his love of fitness and costumes. He's a huge fan of anime, proven when he dressed up as Roronoa Zoro from One Piece for his Physical: 100 introduction.

Eliminated

Amber Yang

Yang is a professional Crossfiter, who has competed as part of the Korean national team for several years. She is also a level 2 coach, per her Instagram bio. She was eliminated in her one-on-one match with Jung You-in.

Chong Te-se

Chong is a Zainichi Korean soccer player, who was born in Tokyo to a South Korean father and a North Korean mother; he identifies as North Korean. He has played professional soccer in Japan, Korea, and Germany. He also played in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and the 2008 East Asian Football Championships, as part of the North Korean national team.

He was part of Team Kim Min-su in Round 2, and was eliminated when Team Andre Jin won.

Emmanuel

Shaibu Emmanuel is a fitness model and IFBB Pro bodybuilder, who was born in Nigeria and currently lives in Korea. He also runs a YouTube fitness channel. He was eliminated in his close-call one-on-one match with Kim Dong-hyun.

Go Min-jung

Go is a Crossfit athlete who has nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram. She also runs her own YouTube channel.

For Round 2, she was part of Team Lee Jang-kun which was eliminated by Team Hong Beom-seok.

Hong Da-eun

Per her Instagram bio, Hong is an arborist, and a rope course and adventure park trainer. Per her Physical: 100 intro, arborists "climb trees that are deep in the forest and over 20 meters tall, and do things such as pruning, collecting seeds, and and basically anything related to trees."

She was part of Team Lee Jang-kun in Round 2, which was eliminated by Team Hong Beom-seok.

Hunter Lee

Lee is an FBI diplomat who recently moved to South Korea to work at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul. He's also a fitness enthusiast and a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve. He was eliminated in his one-on-one match against Sim Yu-ri.

Hwang Choong-won

Hwang is a heavy equipment operator and Crossfit athlete who is best known for appearing in the first season of the Korean variety show The Iron Squad. He has since become a TV personality and influencer, also appearing in the shows King of Wrestling and Steel Ball: Dodgeball Worker.

He was eliminated in Round 2, when his team lost to Team Lee Won-hee.

Jang Jun-hyuk

Jang is the youngest contestant on Physical: 100 season 2, as an 18-year-old professional wrestler who competes at the high school level. He impressed the fellow contestants when he came in second place in Round 2.5.

Kang So-yeon

Kang is a model, entrepreneur, and TV personality who rose to fame while appearing on the first season of Netflix's Single's Inferno. Since then, she has partnered with several companies as an influencer, launched her own gym called HitFit Boxing, and regularly posted on her sports-themed vlog channel. The former K-pop idol also released the single "Loca Loca" in June 2022. She was eliminated in her unseen one-on-one match on Physical: 100 season 2.

Kang Young-seo

Kang is an alpine skier and the youngest Korean female athlete to represent the country in alpine skiing at the Olympics. She participated in three Olympics in a row (Sochi, Pyeongchang, and Beijing), and she has won several medals in both Korea's National Winter Sports Game and the Asian Games. She recently published her first book, a memoir about her life as a skiing athlete.

She was eliminated in Round 2 as part of Team Amotti, which lost to Team Kim Dong-hyun.

Kim Dam-bi

Kim is a former competitive weightlifter who attended Korea National Sport University. She runs a YouTube channel where she documents her ongoing fitness journey and day-to-day life.

In Round 2, she was on Team Kim Min-su, which was eliminated by Team Andre Jin.

Kim Jee-hyuk

Kim is a professional rower and cycling enthusiast who has won several national medals. He also has a couple Instagram and vlog channel with his fiancée, model Kim Ji-eon.

He was eliminated in Round 2 as part of Team Amotti, which lost to Team Kim Dong-hyun.

Kim Hee-hyun

Kim is a professional ballet dancer for the Seoul Metropolitan Ballet. He's a former soloist for Korea's National Ballet, and he also founded the Billy Ballet Studio in Seoul. He's also well-known for his marriage to solo K-pop singer Lim Jeong-hee, also known as J-Lim. He was eliminated in his one-on-one match versus rugby player Chang Yong-heung.

Kim Hye-bin

Kim is a national athlete who competes in wushu sanda, a Chinese full-contact combat sport that combines elements of marital arts, boxing, and kickboxing. She is also the first Korean to win a gold medal at the international competition Universiade. She was eliminated in her close one-on-one match against Kim Dam-bi.

Kim Ji-eun

Kim is a track-and-field athlete who is a two-time national champion and an Asian Championships bronze medalist, per World Athletics. She also runs an Instagram with over 100,000 followers and partners with brands including New Balance and Oakley.

She was part of Team Jung Ji-hyun in Round 2, and was eliminated when Team Lee Jae-yoon won.

Lee Jang-jun

Lee is the main rapper of the K-pop boy group Golden Child, which made its debut in 2017. On Physical: 100, he reveals that he previously trained in taekwondo for a decade, winning numerous medals. The 27-year-old impressed his fellow players during his close one-on-one match against top-ranked player Hong Beom-seok.

Lee Kyu-ho

Lee is an actor and TV personality who's best known for playing Oslo in the Netflix remake Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area. He's been a prolific actor since 2012, and has also starred in dramas including Dr. Romantic, The Uncanny Counter, Taxi Driver, and Hot Stove League. He was eliminated in his one-on-one match versus Amotti.

Park Kwang-jae

Park is an actor and former basketball player who has appeared in several Netflix k-dramas and movies, including Kill Boksoon, Song of the Bandits, Kingdom, and Sweet Home, where he played the Protein Monster. Other works he's featured in recently include Moving, A Shop for Killers, Flower of Evil, The Roundup, Spiritwalker, and Alienoid. He was eliminated in his unseen one-on-one match.

Shin Soo-ji

Shin is a former member of Korea's national rhythmic gymnastics team and represented South Korean at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has also won silver and bronze medals at the Asian Championships. She's now a rhythmic gymnastics commentator, broadcaster, and professional bowler, as well as a TV personality appearing on several variety shows. She was eliminated in her one-on-one match versus Park Ha-yan.

Sim Yu-ri

Sim is a professional MMA fighter and the former champion of the Korean Road Fighting Championship (Road FC), in the atomweight division. In 2016, she came in second place while representing Korea at the Cheongju World Martial Arts Masterships, per SPOTV News. She's also an amateur Crossfitter, and a former ambassador for Lululemon.

She was eliminated in Round 2 as part of Team Hwang Choong-won, which lost to Team Lee Won-hee.

In conversation with Under Armour Chief Communications Officer Amanda Miller at Marie Claire's Power Play event, Flores credited each and every accomplishment to two groups of women who inspire her: the ones who break gender barriers in sports by playing with her now, and the ones who could follow her example in the future. (Okay, discipline has also played a role.)

"The thing I love the most is that you can feel this sense of sorority between all the athletes, [all from] different countries, no matter your sport," Flores said. "I bet if you see a female athlete succeed, you're going to cheer with her. And that's what it's all about."

Flores has been as devoted to championing gender parity in flag football as training for her own games. Flag football is at an exciting juncture, she noted: More than 200 million athletes currently play it across one hundred countries, and it will be included in Olympics for the first time at the Summer 2028 Games.

Still, flag football isn't a professional sport—meaning athletes are not paid for playing. Instead, they make a living outside of the arena while devoting countless hours to practicing and competing for free. "You actually pay to play, and you actually pay to represent your country, and you actually give from your pocket your time, everything, to do what you love," Flores said. "You have to be ten things at the same time, which makes, I feel, every accomplishment and every goal and every journey more to admire."

With every game and every major opportunity (like, say, a role with a massive athleticwear brand), Flores hopes to unlock new pathways for up-and-coming players—as well as that official, professional sport status.

When she found the sport at age eight, Flores had to train with teenagers because there wasn't an outlet to practice for her own age group. Now, she gets to be the example she didn't have on an international scale growing up. (And, she pays it forward by hosting training camps for young girls.)

"Everything we're working for has a bigger purpose," she said, "that it is not for us. It's for the girls that are coming behind us." Building a more equitable arena really is a team sport.

Shop Diana Flores and Amanda Miller's favorite Under Armour picks below.

Shop Diana Flores's Under Armour Picks

Shop Amanda Miller's Under Armour Picks

In conversation with Marie Claire editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike at the Power Play summit in Los Angeles, Ms. Tina opened up about working with Beyoncé on their latest beauty venture. She described the 32-time Grammy winner as the sort of coworker or boss anyone would be lucky to have—for reasons having nothing to do with their obvious family ties. At Cécred, Beyoncé sets exacting standards that pushes the team to "perfect" their formulas, and she's extremely hands-on.

While the brand only left stealth mode in February, Knowles and Knowles-Carter spent six years developing the collection's eight cleansing and conditioning formulas. Cécred's clarifying shampoo and scalp scrub, a product duo inspired by the singer's struggles with eczema and psoriasis, took twelve tries to perfect. Beyoncé tested each one, Knowles said.

"We have sent this product back more than anybody," she elaborated. "She [Beyoncé] just kept saying, 'It could be better.'"

Precise feedback wasn't limited to the one scrub. Knowles said that the Texas Hold 'Em singer would constantly ask for updates on exactly which butters or oils were included in each iteration of each formula, test them herself, and request further tweaks.

"For me, sometimes it's frustrating," Knowles said, "because we would work so hard on the product and it would be amazing and we would have amazing results and she would say, 'I'm sorry, it doesn't have enough slip in it.'"

Going back to the lab on Beyoncé's request paid off in the long run. Beauty editors across the internet gave Cécred glowing reviews at its launch. (Marie Claire beauty director Deena Campbell described the line as "refreshing" in her review.)

Beyoncé didn't learn to demand exactly what she wanted at work by herself; she got her C-suite tendencies from observing her mom. Before breaking into the music industry, the eventual singer and mogul swept the floors at Headlines, her mother's Houston, Texas, hair salon. As a hairstylist, Knowles was already concocting mixtures to treat and restore dyed Black hair—a combination other labels considered "impossible" to make. If no one else would do it, Knowles would make it herself.

The drive to succeed in haircare (and everywhere else) all these years later is intertwined in the pair's DNA. "We both have very strong personalities," Knowles said. The two get into their share of disagreements, she added. "It's a little battle of wills. But overall, we get along very, very well. We have the same vision."

Even when tension arises, Knowles is Beyoncé's most supportive coworker. "I learn from her every day because she's just so methodical and she's so intentional about everything she does and so careful—she just strives," Knowles said.

"We're both obviously pretty ambitious. Not just for the sake of being ambitious, but because we want things to be the best." Spoken like a true boss about an equally impressive leader.

If you're on Instagram, there’s no doubt you’ll recognize Kaur’s work. Marked by her bite-size, all-lowercase poetic style, Kaur rose to fame in the 2010s when she began sharing snippets of her work on social media. Her poems on self-love, femininity, and trauma quickly became viral hits, prompting Kaur to write, illustrate, and self-publish her first collection of poems, milk and honey, in 2014. The book went on to sell 2.5 million copies worldwide, making Kaur a household name and paving the way for her later works, the sun and her flowers (2017) and home body (2020), which both debuted at #1 on bestseller lists. Nowadays, Kaur still posts her work for her 4.5 million Instagram followers and performs her poetry all around the world. 

And that’s just what she did during day one of Power Play. To kickstart the summit, Kaur performed a poem titled “Laugh Lines and Wrinkles” from her book Home Body. Speaking on wrinkles, sun spots, and laugh lines, Kaur’s poem was a gorgeous ode to aging and the kind of message every Power Play attendee surely resonated with.

"I want to look like I was never afraid to let the world take me by the hand and show me what it's made of," she recited. “I want to leave this place knowing I did something with my body other than trying to make it look perfect.”

For her second poem, Kaur gave Power Play attendees a special treat with a performance of an unpublished poem titled, “Woman Who Will Not Die.” In her rendition, Kaur tells the story of a woman rejected by society who is burned and drowned in an attempt to kill her. But rather than dying, the woman comes out stronger, becoming fire and the ocean itself.

Kaur’s performance was in line with what the Power Play summit is all about: power and all of its nuances for women. Helmed by Marie Claire’s Editor-in-Chief Nikki Ogunnaike, the event brings together influential women across industries to discuss their own power and how it plays out differently in everyone’s lives.

"As I’m getting older, I do take more chances. I just go for things more. I’m more ambitious," Cox said in a fireside chat with Marie Claire editor-in-chief Nikki Ogunnaike at Monday's Power Play summit in Los Angeles, California.

The risk Cox took as a first-time entrepreneur in 2022 is a perfect example. Onstage, she said she didn't know a luxury home goods brand would be her next step after acting. But the timing (a freed-up schedule due to the Covid-19 lockdowns) and the concept (non-toxic, luxuriously scented home cleaning products pretty enough to display on a counter) aligned so perfectly, she could dive into becoming a business owner at 58.

Cox wasn't always so willing to chase her interests head-on. "I think there was a time where I was on Friends where I didn’t have enough confidence to go after things that I could’ve or should’ve," she reflected. "Maybe I was more being an imposter back then. But now, I don’t feel like I am, because I take more chances and I do more research and I try harder."

The biggest difference between being the "clean friend" Monica on TV and reaching her full potential as a founder in real life? The amount of effort Cox puts into a project, whether it's developing products for Homecourt or picking up a fresh skill. (Tennis and piano are two of her newer hobbies; she also got very invested in cooking during the pandemic.) "I think things may have come easier [when I was younger]. Now I realize, in order to feel great about myself, you have to put the work in," she explained. "There’s nothing where I don’t give a hundred percent, whereas before I might have skated by."

The leap from Hollywood to founding Homecourt may not be Cox's last big pivot. "I have many things that I want to be better at," Cox said in her closing remarks. "I guess my [definition of] ambition is realizing that you can."

She's proof that's it's never too late to get started, after all. "As I get older, I realize, why not?" she said. "Do all of it, and try really hard."