It’s been a crazy few years for the Korean American actor. In the past three years, as well as starring alongside Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the riotous monster flick Rampage, he has played an NYPD detective in the supernatural drama series Falling Water, and a space super-soldier in Netflix’s Altered Carbon.

But after more than two decades on-screen, only his latest role, as Dr Alex Park in ABC’s The Good Doctor, has given Lee his long sought-after breakthrough: the approval of mum and dad.

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“It's my first role in 20 years where my parents have felt validated that I became an actor,” he says with a laugh. “And I'm not kidding.”

Yun Lee's parents weren't always completely enthused about their son's acting career: his father had always wanted him to be a surgeon. Putting on his first taekwondo belt at the age of three in his father’s martial arts school, Lee was the only child who wasn’t allowed to break boards during grading.

“I couldn’t break anything with my hands because he thought I was going to be a surgeon,” he says. “Then he saw my SAT [exam] scores and that fell to pieces.”

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Lee says that the hopes of his parents for their child were similar to those of many Asian-American parents. “There’s a lot of pressure in Asian families to become a doctor or a lawyer,” he says. “The environment in which you're allowed to explore art is very limited. If I had said I wanted to go to a performing arts school when I was 18, my parents would never have allowed it.”

But when it first aired last year, The Good Doctor resonated particularly strongly with the senior Lees – particularly as it is an American reboot of a popular Korean drama.

“They’d watched only three or four of the things I’d done previously. I think they saw 10 minutes of Altered Carbon and said, 'I don't understand what this is'," says Lee. “But they watch every episode of The Good Doctor. The actually have viewing parties for their friends. I mean, when was the last time you heard of Asian parents hosting a viewing party?”

It’s a change of pace for Lee, who made his name in action roles. He first put on a taekwondo belt at the age of three, and has been appearing on screen since the ’90s. In the 2010s he started pulling in big-screen roles regularly, appearing in remakes of Total Recall and Red Dawn in 2012, followed by 2013’s The Wolverine alongside Hugh Jackman, then scoring a role in Dwayne Johnson’s 2015 disaster epic San Andreas. 

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Yet he says that his role in Altered Carbon, Netflix’s big-budget, Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk series based on the works of British author Richard Morgan, is the toughest run he’s had.

In the series, Lee plays one of the “skins” (in the Altered Carbon universe, people are able to switch bodies) of the protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. He had just finished shooting for the USA TV show Falling Water – in which he had been expected to maintain a 90kg body weight on his 1.75-metre frame – when he got the call.

“They made me put on as much weight as I could in the shortest amount of time, so I was eating burgers and ice cream every night and drinking Guinness.”

Then the producer of Altered Carbon sent him a photo of Joel Kinnaman, his sci-fi body double on the show. “We're supposed to have similar body types. I said, ‘Are you kidding me? The guy is down to like seven per cent body fat! I think I'm at 47 per cent body fat.’”

Lee was told he would have to lose almost 14kg in six weeks. But unlike some actors, he relished the challenge.

“I love it, particularly when you put a clock on it,” he says. “They tell you have to achieve this goal by this time, and it pushes you to reach that standard.”

On the other hand his wife, actress Jennifer Birmingham, loathes it.

“When I go into training mode everything changes – from the amount of time I'm in the gym, to my diet, everything. So she's glad when those things are over.”

But even Lee concedes that he might eventually need some downtime. “Perhaps next year I’ll take a break. Just a little bit.”

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This ability to choose his schedule is, Lee says, his personal definition of luxury.

“Luxury is being able to make the choice of doing what you want to do,” he says. “I’m not a fancy guy. I've always said as long as I can turn on the lights and feed myself, I've made it.”

His idea of the good life isn’t dictated by material things, by the fast cars and foibles associated with so many celebrities. Rather, it is determined by quality time. “I'm shooting in Vancouver, which is an amazing place and I get to bring the family up every once in awhile. So we find ways to find some relaxation.”

As for his style, he says it’s more about function than form.

His philosophical world view seems at odds with the stereotypical image of a Hollywood tough guy. Lee attended University of California, Berkeley, after being awarded a full athletic scholarship, where his intellectual curiosity led him to take up political science and ethnic studies. This has given him a certain authority when it comes to discussing diversity in the entertainment industry. He’s spoken publicly about equality, “whitewashing” and stereotyping in Hollywood, and while acknowledging he’s taken some “cliched” roles, firmly believes things are improving.

“I think there’s less tokenism in Hollywood now,” Lee says. “With films like Crazy Rich Asians, it at least opens the door. The constant success of films with diverse casts – whether it's The Fast and the Furious or Hustlers – when you see these films bringing studios financial rewards, that's what keeps the machine going.”

And while he has spent many years doing action roles, he doesn't regard himself as having been typecast – rather, action is the arena in which he excels. And he’s very clear about his career inspirations.

“I remember watching Jason Scott Lee in the movie Dragon [the 1993 biopic of Bruce Lee’s life], and that was the reason I moved to LA to do acting. It wasn't so much that he did martial arts – he also did The Jungle Book and all these other movies – but he was the first actor I could relate to. He changed my life, because I thought ‘wow, I'm represented on the screen’.”

Looking to the future, Lee sees an opportunity to help inspire and empower a new generation. He has plans to produce a film of his own based on the life of his father, Soo Woong Lee, who was one of the first Korean taekwondo masters to teach in the US, in the 1960s.

“The Vietnam war was happening; it was just post-Civil Rights movement, and my father had one of the first all-African American fight teams in the United States,” Lee says. “The competition circuit at that time was primarily white competitors; Koreans and African Americans at that time just didn't know each other. But for this group of young African Americans, it was like their family: they fought together, bled together, cried together. And that story to me is very special.”

Lee also looks forward to working in Asia – something he says he’s not done enough of. “I love working in Hong Kong,” he says. “The efficiency of the crews and their kindness is incredible. And it's also interesting, sociologically, to be an Asian lead in a movie in Asia. I felt what it must be like for a Caucasian in Hollywood. It's a completely different feeling. And very refreshing.”

When asked which Chinese star he’d most love to work with, the answer is immediate and unequivocal:

“Donnie Yen. He's the pinnacle right now and he's an icon. That would be a dream come true.”

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Will Yun Lee’s latest film, Rogue Warfare, will hit cinema screens in the US on October 4. International distribution is yet to be confirmed.

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