Lee Hong-nae on TVING Hit 'Chwisabyeong' and Why Process Beats Ratings

"It almost feels unfair," Lee Hong-nae said with a laugh. "He has the looks, and he has the kind heart to match."

The Korean actor was talking about his friend and fellow actor Byeon Woo-seok during a recent interview at a cafe in Gangnam district, Seoul. While shooting the TVING original series "The Legend of Kitchen Soldier" (Chwisabyeong Jeonseori Doeda), Lee received his first-ever coffee truck on a set. The gift came from Byeon, and Lee said the gesture caught him completely off guard.

"The Legend of Kitchen Soldier" is a military cooking-show fantasy drama that follows a young private, Kang Sung-jae, played by Park Ji-hoon, as he trades his rifle for a kitchen knife and his ammo belt for an apron on his path to becoming a legendary army cook. The 12-episode show is based on the Naver Webtoon of the same name. Its finale drew a 7.6 percent rating.

Lee played Sergeant Yoon Dong-hyun, a cook stationed at the fictional Gangrim outpost, leaning into laid-back comic timing that made the role stand out. He debuted in 2014 and has built his filmography across film and television. He is currently signed to Baro Entertainment.

The coffee truck arrived in the middle of filming, with no warning. Lee and Byeon are labelmates and grew close while appearing together on the JTBC drama "Strong Girl Nam-soon."

"I had no idea a coffee truck was coming. Nobody even hinted at it," Lee said. "Woo-seok and I worked together briefly on 'Strong Girl Nam-soon' and I had so much fun on that shoot."

"We're at the same agency, but our schedules are different, so we don't see each other often," he added. "I heard during filming that a coffee truck had arrived and I thought, who would be sending me a coffee truck? Then I went outside and saw Woo-seok's name on it."

The shoot stretched across both summer and winter, and Lee said the gift meant even more because of how long the crew had been working. "The staff told me how much they enjoyed it, which made me even more grateful," he said. "I called him right away and told him, 'I know you're busy, thank you so much for thinking of me. I'll pay you back for sure.'" He added that Byeon, who is a year or two younger, is "the kind of friend you actually learn a lot from."

Lee said his path to his current agency started with another actor, Joo Jong-hyuk. "Jong-hyuk and I are friends. He told me, 'There's a really good manager you should meet,' and that's how the connection started," Lee said. "At the time I was shooting a film on my own, without an agency."

"The company was just finding its footing back then. We talked through a lot of things before deciding to work together," he said. "I heard later that they felt they needed a character actor like me." He said the team at Baro Entertainment has been a steady source of support. "Everyone there always tells me, 'You can do this' and 'You're really good at what you do.' Those words mean a lot. I'm truly thankful for them."

When it comes to how he approaches a project, Lee said he values the process more than the result. "If you focus on the result, you end up chasing only the result," he said. "Of course it's nice when things turn out well, but doing your best inside the work matters more."

"There's always something I wish I'd done better after a shoot wraps," he said. "I want to be the kind of actor who chips away at those regrets one by one. If you give everything you have in the process, you can accept whatever the outcome is."

That mindset is also why Lee avoids ratings once a show airs. "I don't check the ratings at all once it's on the air," he said with a smile. "I'm filming another project right now, and if I started checking the numbers every episode, I'd just get shaken." He added, "Once a project leaves my hands, it belongs to the viewers. Right now it's much more important for me to focus on the next performance than on the reviews."