Choi Woo-shik began his acting career in the 2011 MBC sageuk series The Duo. That same year, he was cast in the OCN crime drama Special Affairs Team TEN and reprised his role for its second season aired in 2013. In 2014, he bagged his first leading role in the coming-of-age indie film Set Me Free. He was named Actor of the Year at the 2014 Busan International Film Festival for his work in the movie. He also won several Best New Actor trophies, including one from the 2015 Blue Dragon Film Awards. In 2016, he was included in the cast of the action horror film Train to Busan, which was both a commercial and critical success. In 2019, he appeared in director Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy thriller film Parasite, which became the first South Korean film to win the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It also became the first non-English language movie to take home the Academy Awards Best Picture and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Additionally, the film won the Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. It also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language.

He and his family moved to Vancouver, Canada when he was in fifth grade. His English name is Edward and his nickname is Eddie.