A K-pop superstar, actor, and high tenor, Max Changmin (aka MAX) is known for his electronic dance- and R&B-influenced sound. He is an original member of TVXQ, a 2003-formed, multi-award-winning Korean boy band who found great success in both their homeland and in Japan. In 2020, MAX made his solo debut with the mini-album Chocolate, a Top Five hit in Korea and Japan. Another mini-album, Human, arrived in 2021.

Born Shim Chang-min to Buddhist parents who worked as teachers, he became fluent in both Korean and Japanese. He was reportedly discovered at age 14 by an executive of SM Entertainment who heard him singing on a badminton court. Two auditions and one talent contest later, using the stage name Max Changmin, he became the youngest member of TVXQ. The band's debut single, the mid-paced pop ballad "Hug," reached a respectable number 12 on the Korean chart, but this early success didn’t affect Changmin's studies. In 2006, he successfully graduated from Gaepo High School and went on to major in postmodern music at Kyung Hee University.

In early 2008, his solo performance of "Wild Soul" appeared on a Japanese-language double-A-side under the TVXQ name, just after the release of T, their sixth album overall. When three members left the band in 2010, Changmin and U-Know Yunho pushed on as a duo, adding significantly to TVXQ's eclectic canon of dance-pop and slow-burning R&B. Their continued success was partly bolstered by Changmin's burgeoning acting career. Following supporting appearances in mini-series such as Vacation and Banjun Drama, he enjoyed his first lead role in Paradise Ranch, a 16-part romantic comedy which hit Korean TV screens in early 2011. Changmin co-wrote "Confession," an emotive piano ballad which was featured in both the show's soundtrack and on TVXQ's comeback album, Keep Your Head Down. That record topped the Korean chart and its follow-up, Tone, became TVXQ's first number one studio album in Japan. The resultant Japanese tour attracted over half-a-million people on 26 dates, the most ever for a Korean artist in the country, until that figure was topped by their own tour for 2013's Time.

In 2014, his management company requested that he join S.M. the Ballad, a collective of singers from the same stable. Their Breath EP reached number one on the Korean album charts before Changmin decided to record an exclusive solo EP, Close to You, for his Japanese fan club members. This was essentially a gesture to say goodbye to his most faithful supporters before embarking on an almost two-year hiatus while he served compulsory national service in the Military Police. TVXQ returned in 2017 and continued to break records, selling over a million tickets for that year's tour of Japan. By the end of the decade, they had become the highest-grossing foreign music act in Japan. In 2020, Changmin -- rebranded as MAX -- issued his first proper solo mini-album, Chocolate. A six-track release of varying genres, it debuted at number two in Korea and number three in Japan. A second Japanese mini-album, Human, arrived in December 2021. ~ James Wilkinson, Rovi