Wanki Chae

Wanki Chae was born on June 25, 1987 in a small town named Pocheon – one hour drive from Seoul, South Korea.

The country of South Korea is one of the strongest martial arts hotbeds in the world, a landmass where popular combat systems such as hapkido and Tae Kwon Do were created. As such, most of South Korea’s youth is introduced to these activities early on. This was also the case for Chae who started practicing at the age of 14, going on to become a 4th degree black belt in both martial arts.

Chae found Jiu-Jitsu as a 15 year old through a fellow Hapkido training partner, who was one of the few BJJ blue belts in the country at the time. Wanki immediately liked the dynamics of BJJ and started training regularly, later becoming a John Frankl student – a pioneering American black belt who developed one of the very first grappling programs in South Korea.

From the very get go Wanki Chae decided to train full time, and believed he would achieve greatness in the sport. On June 13, 2014 he earned his black belt in jiu jitsu from Mr Frankle and quickly established himself as one of the leading athletes in Asia’s professional circuit.