Rick Yune

Rick Yune (born August 22, 1971) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, martial artist and former model. --- Yune was born in Washington D.C., the son of Wonhui Park and Tom Taeho Yune. He is of Korean descent. His younger brother is actor Karl Yune. Yune was educated at Our Lady of Good Counsel High School, Silver Spring, Maryland, and St. John's Military School. In 1994, he received his MBA degree from Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To raise cash for his studies, he tried several jobs, including as a hedge fund trader for SAC capital, and was persuaded to become a model in his spare time. Yune practices many forms of martial arts, having reached Olympic standard in Taekwondo and being a serious contender for the US team when he was 19. He changed the spelling of his last name from "Yun" to "Yune" for Screen Actors Guild (SAG) purposes. --- While studying at Wharton School of Business, Rick Yune worked as an intern on Wall Street trading stocks during summer 1992. During that time, he was "discovered" by a modeling agent and soon became the first Asian-American featured in advertisements for Versace and Ralph Lauren's Polo. Yune could also be seen in two 2005 episodes of ABC's spy-fi series Alias, playing a modern-day samurai named Kazu Tamazaki who was hunted down by Jennifer Garner in Sydney. He also appeared as a guest in an episode of ABC's legal dramedy series Boston Legal and the popular, Emmy award-winning CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The newcomer made his film debut in 1999, playing Kazuo Miyamoto, a Japanese-American war hero accused of killing a respected fisherman (played by Daniel von Bargen) in the close-knit community, in director Scott Hicks' film adaptation of David Guterson's post-WWII novel, Snow Falling on Cedars. The film that also starred Ethan Hawke received Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography.