Kim Ji-soo made her acting debut in 1992 and went on to establish herself over the next decade. Her efforts earned her recognition for several of her early works, including the television dramas When She Beckons, See and See Again, and Like a Flowing River. Her career reached a new milestone in 2005 with her film debut in director Lee Yoon-ki’s This Charming Girl. Her performance scored her multiple Best New Actress awards and the Best Actress trophy at the 18th Singapore International Film Festival.


In 2008, Kim Ji-soo starred in the romance melodrama Women in the Sun, which won her the Top Excellence Award at the KBS Drama Awards. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the 45th Baeksang Arts Awards for the series. She received another Best Actress nomination at the 50th Baeksang Arts Awards in 2014 for the SBS drama Warm Words. In 2018, she joined the main cast of SBS’s Fox Bride Star, which gave her an Excellence Award nomination at the SBS Drama Awards.


Kim Ji-soo dated her Like a Flowing River co-star, the late actor Kim Joo-hyuk, for six years. She was involved in two drunk driving incidents, first in 2000 and again in 2010.