Park was born in South Korea, the youngest of three siblings, and raised in the United States, later becoming an American citizen. His father died when he was young, leaving him and his older siblings to be raised by their single mother. He graduated from La Quinta High School in Westminster, California and attended California State University, Long Beach. Prior to entering the entertainment industry, he worked at an advertising firm as a graphic designer.
In 1997 Park moved to Seoul, South Korea, where his older sister had been working, with the dream of creating a pop music group. He wanted to mix Korean music with a twist of western culture. The first member he recruited was his cousin Danny Ahn, followed by Danny's friend Son Ho-young, aspiring singer Yoon Kye-sang and rookie actress Kim Sun-a. However, their agency was forced to cut funding for trainees due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and only relented due to Park and the other members' persistence. Singer-songwriter Park Jin-young was introduced to be their producer and the group was initially a six-piece mixed-gender group tentatively named "GOT6".
In the midst of preparations for the group's debut and album, Park was cast in a beer commercial for Oriental Brewery and also landed a small recurring role in the SBS sitcom Soonpoong Clinic (ko) as the boyfriend of Song Hye-kyo's character. Park later stated that all his earnings from the commercial and sitcom was spent on daily living expenses during the period he and the other members did not receive financial funding from their agency for over a year.

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