Jaemin was born in Jeonju, South Korea, on August 13, 2000 as an only son. He grew up in Seoul and attended Incheon Cheong-il elementary school, then Incheon Haewon Middle School, and continued to Seoul School of Performing Arts. As a child, Jaemin was involved in speed skating and was ranked 2nd at the national level. He also dreams of becoming a surgeon because he watches the show Mysteries of the Human Body.
However, his talent in the entertainment field has been seen since he became a commercial star in 2008 as a 'hoop boy'. This ad is a re-enactment of the 1988 Seoul Olympics in which a boy runs while rolling a hoop. In 2013, Jaemin became a trainee at SM Entertainment after being discovered by a talent scout while helping his mother volunteer to distribute flyers and clean up trash. With his busy training activities, Jaemin left the School of Performing Arts Seoul to concentrate on his career in entertainment.
Jaemin first appeared in various SM Entertainment content in 2014, where he was introduced as part of an SM Entertainment trainee and appeared in the upcoming SM Rookies project. He starred in several SM Entertainment shows, such as SM Town Live World Tour IV Archived 2016-10-25 at Wayback Machine. in August 2014 and EXO 90:2014 in October 2014. Jaemin revealed that at the beginning of his training period, he was not a well-developed trainee. He started to get excited about practicing after seeing his fellow trainees showing good progress since joining SM Entertainment.
