Career
Reality television
Chung was a cast member on The Real World: San Diego, the 14th season of MTV's long-running reality TV show The Real World, which first aired in 2004. At the time she was selected to be on TRW:SD, she was described by MTV as a hard-working student who worked two jobs to pay her tuition but also enjoyed partying. She was also described by her friends as not having the best taste in men.[15]
After appearing on The Real World, Chung appeared on its spin-off game show, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, as a cast member in that show's 2005 season, The Inferno II,[16] during which she was a member of the "Good Guys" team, which squared off against the "Bad Asses". By the end of the season, after several cast members had been eliminated during the competition, Chung remained, along with her teammates Darrell Taylor, Landon Lueck, and Mike Mizanin. Chung and her teammates defeated the remaining members of the Bad Asses in the final event, and won the competition.
Acting
After her stint on The Real World, Chung began her acting career with various minor roles in television and films, including as Cordy Han in ten episodes of Days of Our Lives, as a Hooters girl in the 2007 comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, and in episodes of CSI: NY and Veronica Mars.
One of Chung's earliest on-camera appearances was in the music video for Rihanna's single "Umbrella", as first woman to the right of Jay Z. The video premiered April 26, 2007.[17] In 2008 Chung had her first major onscreen role, as the series lead in the ABC Family television miniseries Samurai Girl.[18][19]
She had supporting roles in the 2009 feature films Sorority Row and Dragonball Evolution, in the latter as Goku's love interest, Chi-Chi, as well as the lead role in one of the segments of the film Burning Palms. Chung later starred in the Disney Channel TV film Princess Protection Program, which co-starred Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez. She appeared in 2010 film Grown Ups and had a supporting role in the 2012 martial arts film The Man with the Iron Fists.
In March 2011, Chung played Amber in Zack Snyder's action fantasy film Sucker Punch, which required her to undergo physical training with Navy SEALs and work with stunt and fight choreographers who had worked on Snyder's previous films. Chung stated that she nervous about having to sing in the film: "I don't sing. I'm working on it, but just because I'm Korean doesn't mean I karaoke."[20] She then provided the voice of Aimi Yoshida in the video game X-Men: Destiny, which was released that September.[21][22]
Chung gained her first major feature film role in the 2012 film Premium Rush, directed by David Koepp.[23] That same year, she starred as the lead in the independent film Eden, in which she played a Korean American girl abducted and coerced into prostitution by American human traffickers. Since 2012, she has appeared in the recurring role of Mulan in the television series Once Upon a Time.[24]
In 2014, Chung co-starred in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released that August. That October saw the release of the animated Disney film Big Hero 6, in which she provided the voice of GoGo Tomago.[25] Big Hero 6 won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.[26] She reprised the role in Disney XD's 2017 series Big Hero 6: The Series[27][28] and in Kingdom Hearts III (2019).
Chung and her then-fiancé, Bryan Greenberg, co-starred in the film Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong, which was released in February 2015.
In March 2016, Chung was cast as attorney Lana Harris in the one-hour legal drama Miranda's Rights,[27] but the series was not picked up by NBC after the pilot episode.[29]
Chung was cast as Blink in the Fox superhero series The Gifted, which debuted in October 2017. She plays a younger version of the character played by Fan Bingbing in the 2014 feature film X-Men: Days of Future Past.[30][31]
In August 2020, Chung appeared in the HBO series Lovecraft Country. She plays the recurring character Ji-Ah, a young nurse living in Daegu during the Korean War, who falls in love with American soldier Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors). The series' sixth episode centers on Ji-Ah and garnered critical acclaim. Chung stated that this was her most challenging role to date. She added that her experience on the series inspired her to pitch her own show, which sold.[32]
In 2023, Chung voiced Vax, a freedom fighter and recurring character in My Dad the Bounty Hunter.[33][34]
Other work
Chung writes for her own fashion blog, What the Chung?[35][36]
