Hwang Jun-ho

"I'm a police officer, remember? I'll find him."
Played By: Wi Ha-joon Other Languages
A detective who sneaks into the games to find his missing brother.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: He keeps a cool head when seeing the games in motion, complete with people being gunned down for the mere crime of breaking their dalgona. Jun-ho becomes less cool when he faces the possibility that his brother In-ho may have been dissected for his eyes in organ donation, angrily interrogating a guard at gunpoint after the latter busts him for being an impostor. After nearly being caught, Jun-ho hides in the Front Man's office, and sees records of the games that go back to 1988, and In-ho isn't listened in the 2020 games. He tries to figure out how to search through 32 years' worth of records to find his brother, all without saying a word, before a binder with the same design as the ribboned coffins catches his eyes. The binder reveals that In-ho participated in 2015, and he won. Jun-ho looks up the records with horror, trying to figure out what they did to his big brother, and why didn't he realize In-ho must have gone missing five years ago.
- Beware the Nice Ones: He shoots a guard after interrogating him when the latter promises to not rat him out and begs for his life. It didn't help that the guard confessed that the male guards regularly rape the corpses of women, including the ones up for involuntary organ donation.
- Born Lucky: Even more so than Gi-hun. On several occasions, he only manages to avoid blowing his cover due to circumstances entirely beyond his control. For example: while disguised as a guard [circle], one of his superiors [square] notices that he's acting suspicious, only to be killed by the Front Man before having the chance to question him. This not only takes the heat off, but provides him with a square mask to allow further infiltration.
- Cowboy Cop: His personal investigation into the people who created the Deadly Game certainly isn't protocol, and he's quite willing to kill people without due process if it gets him what he wanted. Granted, his targets are all well-deserved, but it also shows how Jun-ho will go to any length to find out what happened to his brother.
- Decoy Protagonist: He's set up as a major character early on and is the one who uncovers much of the information about the game, but he's taken out before the finale by Front Man, and his arc never ends up intersecting with that of our main characters.
- Deuteragonist: His infiltration of the island is the series' secondary plotline.
- Entertainingly Wrong: He comes to the terrifying and utterly possible conclusion that his brother In-ho was one of the casualties during the "Red light green light game" given his apartment was vacant for a few days, and Gi-hun revealed to an undercover Jun-ho that even if a prisoner by that name In-ho Hwang was there, the prisoners don't know everyone's names. Jun-ho gets confirmation at least that the guards running an organ trafficking scheme didn't cut up his brother for his eyes, despite a brief moment of fear when they talk about a "zombie" with one kidney. The truth is worse: In-ho won in 2015, and Il-nam mentored him to take his place as the Front Man for the 2020 games.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- While undercover he keeps a cool head amid the atrocities, he tries not to look. When holding a guard that nearly busts him at gunpoint, Jun-ho tells him coldly that the dissected "zombie" they were discussing had a brother...him, and was a human being. (He was mildly relieved that the "zombie" was a woman and not In-ho but still shoots the guy to pragmatically eliminate a witness and because the guard admitted that he and his men rape the female corpses.) Later, he's visibly uncomfortable behind his caterer mask when VIP 4 forces him to sit and watch the Stepping Stones challenge with him, since he was using the cover of serving drinks to keep his eyes away from the screen and record their betting pools.
- What's tragic is this gets him nearly killed. The guards and Front Man corner him, saying that if he surrenders and gives them the phone with incriminating evidence, he may live. Jun-ho obviously doesn't believe them, and uses his last bullet to injure the Front Man to at least prove he won't go down easily. Then the Front Man unmasks himself, revealed to be In-ho, Jun-ho's older brother. Though he asks for Jun-ho to join him, all a disbelieving Jun-ho can do is shake his head, his last words being, "Brother, why?".
- Fair Cop: A very handsome young police officer. VIP 4 even comments that he has a pretty face when forced to unmask in the private room.
- Fatal Flaw:
- His I Work Alone attitude; he simply texts his boss that he won't be in the office that day. While he may have gotten fired by doing an illicit investigation while off-duty, telling someone that he was following a lead and saw a convoy of trucks with drugged people would have meant that the cops would have realized that Gi-hun was telling the truth about the games and at least opened up an investigation of a detective disappearing.
- His lack of proficiency in English. He didn't know what scotch (the drink he was holding) meant, as VIP 4 called him to bring him some, but since Jun-ho was unresponsive, VIP 4 forced him to be his own personal servant for the night. It only goes downhill from there for Jun-ho, as this is how his entire cover gets blown.
- Hero of Another Story: His arc takes place largely separate from everyone else's. He follows Gi-hun to get to the contest, but after that, he spends the rest of the story sneaking around the facility posing as a member of the staff trying to find information about his brother.
- Identical Twin ID Tag: When undercover, the only way to distinguish him and the identically dressed guards is the loose button on his uniform after his initial scuffle with a Worker to acquire one.
- Indy Ploy: After assuming the role as one of the guards of the Squid Game, Jun-ho's only plan is to try his best to act out the part while continuing his investigation in private. The only problem is, given he's completely in the dark on what he's dealing with, he naturally really struggles with how he is supposed to act.
- It's Personal: His reason for investigating the games is that he believes that they are responsible for his brother's disappearance. He's right, but not in the way he expected.
- Never Found the Body: He seemingly dies in a way typical to this trope — shot non-fatally, then falls off a cliff into water and his body isn't recovered. Then it's revealed he's alive in Season 2.
- Next Tier Power-Up: He starts off with a lowly circle mask, but obtains a square one when a superior is killed. It isn't too useful since a quick scan would reveal that it was stolen, but it does allow him to sometimes allay suspicions by pulling rank.
- Pet the Dog: While undercover, he checks to make sure that Gi-hun wasn't hurt during the riot, and asks him if In-ho Hwang is in the barracks. This little question makes Gi-hun realize the players don't know each other's names, and finding out would be a way of gaining trust.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: When he hears the story that Gi-hun told the police, he tracks down the man. Jun-ho explains his brother also went missing after getting an identical business card, and says he'd like Gi-hun's help to uncover the truth behind these games. When Gi-hun refuses, in part because his mother is dying and he needs to reenter the games to get the money she needs, Jun-ho follows him from a distance and realizes that he was telling the truth. He realizes pragmatically that he can't save anyone while undercover, but he can get justice for them by keeping a record of the atrocities.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Maybe. He gets shot and falls off a cliff in the second-to-last episode, and his plotline seemingly comes to nothing. However, there is still a chance he survived and could make a comeback.This is made true with the Season 2 trailers showing him alive and well.
- The Watson: His entire role in the series is to provide a means for the audience to learn details about how the island operation works and how long it's been functional.
- You Killed My Father: He accuses a guard of this when hearing that a "red light green light" zombie had a kidney, that his brother was gutted. The guard, while held at gunpoint, tells him that it was a woman they dissected, not a man.
