Seo Hyun-woo made his screen acting debut in 2011 through the films White: Melody of Death and The Front Line. He slowly built his acting portfolio by playing small roles in numerous movies during the early phase of his career. He began to gain more attention in 2015 when he became part of the crime-thriller film Fatal Intuition. In 2018, he appeared in tvN’s My Ajusshi and in MBC’s Time. In 2019, he joined the main cast of the indie coming-of-age film A Boy and Sungreen. In 2020, he worked with director Woo Min-ho in the political drama film The Man Standing Next, which earned him a Best New Actor nomination at the 20th Director’s Cut Awards. That same year, he acted alongside Lee Jun-ki and Moon Chae-won in the tvN series Flower of Evil, which was nominated for Best Drama at the 57th Baeksang Arts Awards. In 2022, he was named Fantastic Actor at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival for the crime-action movie Thunderbird.

Seo Hyun-woo attended the theater department of the Korea National University of Arts.