Sohn Dong-woon debuted with the South Korean boy group BEAST in 2009. They released their first extended play Beast Is the B2ST in October of that year. In March 2011, they made their Japanese debut with the single Shock, which was followed by the release of their first full-length Korean album titled Fiction and Fact in May. The album topped the Gaon Album Chart and sold over 142,000 copies by the end of 2011, making it the fifth best-selling album in South Korea of that year. In 2017, the group changed their name to Highlight after they moved to a new label. In 2019, Sohn Dong-woon released his first solo Korean extended play called Act 1: The Orchestra.

Sohn Dong-woon made his acting debut in 2012 with the Broadway musical Catch Me If You Can. This was followed by appearances in other theater productions such as The Great Gatsby [RE:BOOT] in 2016 and Altar Boyz in 2018. In 2021, he starred in the web drama The Guys I Want to Catch. In 2022, he was cast in his first television role in SBS’s Today’s Webtoon.

Sohn Dong-woon graduated from Dongguk University. He enlisted for his mandatory military service in May 2019 and was discharged in December 2020.