Johnny was born John Jun Suh on February 9, 1995, in Chicago, Illinois, to South Korean immigrant parents. In 2007, he auditioned for the South Korean talent agency SM Entertainment, where he passed and was given an allowance to train only during summer vacations. Following his graduation from Glenbrook North High School in 2013, he moved to Seoul, South Korea and began with full-time training in vocals, rap, dance, and the Korean language.
On December 24, 2013, SM Entertainment formally introduced Johnny as a trainee under the pre-debut training team SM Rookies. In 2014, he participated in the reality television series Exo 90:2014, alongside his seniors Exo and fellow SM Rookies trainees (now NCT members) Taeyong, Yuta, Ten, Jaehyun, Mark, and Haechan. In 2016, Johnny collaborated with Yoon Do-hyun, Reddy, G2, and Inlayer in the SM Station digital single "Nightmare". He also appeared in J-Min's music video for "Ready For Your Love". In the same year, he was featured in NCT 127's single "Switch", where he is credited under the SM Rookies sub-unit SR15B.
Johnny debuted as a member of NCT through the Seoul-based sub-unit NCT 127 on January 6, 2017, with their second extended play Limitless and its title track of the same name. He was added to NCT 127 six months after their official debut in July 7, 2016. His training period lasted for eight to nine years, making him one of the K-pop artists to have the longest training periods.

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