Song Kang-ho never professionally trained as an actor, beginning his career in social theater groups after graduating from Gimhae High School. After getting a Broadcasting degree from Busan Kyungsang College, he later joined Kee Kuk-seo's influential theatre company with its emphasis on instinctive acting and improvisation which proved Song's training ground. He made his stage premiere in 1991, in the play Dongseung. Although regularly approached to act in films, he always turned down the opportunity until taking a role as an extra in Hong Sang-soo's The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996).