Hwang Kee

Hwang Kee (1914–2002) is the founder of Tang Soo Do and the Moo Duk Kwan school—one of the original Nine Kwans (schools) from which modern Korean martial arts developed. Largely self-taught through observation and the study of Chinese martial arts in Manchuria, Hwang Kee opened the Moo Duk Kwan in Seoul in 1945, immediately after Korea’s liberation from Japanese occupation. When pressure mounted in the 1950s–70s to unify all Korean martial arts under the Taekwondo umbrella, Hwang Kee refused to merge, preserving Tang Soo Do’s distinct Chinese-influenced technical tradition and identity. His students and their lineage spread Tang Soo Do internationally, with Chuck Norris among the art’s most famous indirect ambassadors.