Cha Eun Woo’s brother Lee Dong-hwi, and what Cha has said about his family

Cha Eun Woo has a younger brother, Lee Dong-hwi (이동휘). Most of what is on record about him comes from Cha’s own television appearances, where he has talked about him since 2020. The brother drew his own headlines in November 2025, when he gave a talk on artificial intelligence at a tech conference in Seoul.

The family on record

Who is Cha Eun Woo’s brother?

Cha gave his brother’s name on the first episode of tvN’s Rented in Finland (핀란드 셋방살이), broadcast on 6 December 2024. One of his co-stars was the actor Lee Dong-hwi, and Cha explained why calling him “hyung” felt odd: his brother has the same name, and he had spent 28 years saying “Dong-hwi-ya” to him. The actor and the brother are different people.

He had talked about him years earlier. On SBS’s basketball show Handsome Tigers in January 2020, Cha called his brother cute, said he was more talented than him and had a smaller face, and mentioned that he had studied in China and was doing his military service. The brother had asked him to bring girl group members to visit him in the army. Cha said he told him to mind his own business.

The rivalry, in Cha’s words

On tvN’s You Quiz on the Block on 8 May 2024, Cha said his brother was studying journalism in China and was thinking about what to do next, and that he had offered to help with whatever he chose. His brother tells him he wants to beat him at something at least once, Cha said. He added that he never lets him win.

The brother also appeared in the Finland series: in an episode shown on 24 January 2025, he helped Cha stir-fry gochu japchae at the family home before the trip, taking over the pan while Cha looked for the sauce.

Cha Eun Woo’s brother and the AI lecture

In November 2025 Lee Dong-hwi spoke at AI Summit Seoul & Expo 2025 at Coex, alongside Cho Yong-min, the chief executive of Unbound Lab. The session’s title referred to an AI he had first built for his brother and later developed into a tool for checking brand credibility, using models that collect and process data from websites. JoongAng Daily described him as working on research and consulting at Unbound Lab after marketing jobs in Korea and China.

A few months before, a four-second clip of him walking in the background of a You Quiz segment had already gone viral, mostly because viewers noticed the resemblance.

What has Cha Eun Woo said about his parents?

Less than about his brother. On You Quiz in May 2024 he said his father claims Cha looks 90 percent like him; his mother used to argue with that and now says nothing. In the Finland series he cooked from recipes his mother had written out for him.

His mother came up in a different context in January 2026. The income tax assessment against him concerned a management company set up in her name. That dispute, and his appeal, are covered on the tax page.

Questions people ask

Does Cha Eun Woo have siblings? Yes, a younger brother, Lee Dong-hwi.

What is Cha Eun Woo’s brother’s name? Lee Dong-hwi (이동휘). Cha confirmed it on Rented in Finland in December 2024.

Is Cha Eun Woo’s brother an actor? No. The actor Lee Dong-hwi is a different person who shares the name. Cha’s brother works in AI.

How old is Cha Eun Woo’s brother? His birth date has not been published by Cha or in the press reports used here. He is the younger of the two.