cho hyun ju

Player 120, is a character in both the second and third seasons of South Korean Netflix drama Squid Game. In the series, she is a highly skilled and highly trained ex-Special Forces soldier until she was discharged after coming out as a trans woman, further losing family support and employment. She joins Squid Game to win money in order to support her gender-affirming surgery and possibly move to Thailand to live as a kathoey, and befriends multiple characters, including a woman named Kim Young-mi. She was created by series creator Hwang Dong-hyuk and portrayed by Park Sung-hoon, a cisgender man. Hwang expressed difficulty in finding a trans female actor in South Korea, citing how South Koreans treat trans people as a reason for casting being difficult. Park worked with trans people in order to portray the character accurately, hoping to avoid caricaturing her.