Choi Kang-hee would play semi-professional football with Hanil Bank and the Army Football Team, ROK Army FC. With the formation of the K League and professionalism in 1983 he would start his professional career with POSCO Dolphins before joining Hyundai FC where he spent nine seasons with the club until he retired at the end of the 1992 league season after having a disagreement with the clubs manager Cha Bum-kun about his training methods.
The following year after Choi retired from playing as a footballer he would begin his coaching career when he went to Leverkusen and Cologne in Germany to study the necessary training and management courses. By 1996 he would become a trainer at Suwon Samsung Bluewings and then an assistant to Kim Ho as the club won the 2000–01 Asian Club Championship. He would be an assistant for the South Korea U23 and then South Korea senior team under Humberto Coelho. Choi's first stint managing K League 1 side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors lasted for 6 years from 2005 to 2011. He focused on pursuing offensive tactics and transformed the team into one of the strongest sides in Asia. He led Jeonbuk to the K League 1 title in 2009 and 2011. He also won the Asian Champions League in 2006 and lost a final in 2011 to Qatari side Al Sadd. Choi repeatedly turned down offers to become South Korea national football team head coach after former coach Cho Kwang-Rae was sacked. However, after being repeatedly offered the job, he finally accepted the coaching offer on 21 December 2011. Choi, a former player himself, firmly insisted that his reign would only last until the end of World Cup qualifiers. He stated, "I asked that . What we need to do is qualify for the World Cup finals for the eighth time in a row...My mission is to take the national team to the finals. After that, a foreign coach should take over the team. If the KFA does not accept this, I won't sign the contract". On 25 February 2011, South Korean national football team won against Uzbekistan with the score of 4–2 in friendly match, marking Choi's first victory in his career as a national coach and making many fans look forward to his journey to the upcoming 2014 FIFA World Cup. Nevertheless, his team showed poor performance in 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian qualification match on 18 June 2013, which South Korea suffered the 1–0 defeat against Iran and almost failed to directly qualify for the 2014 World Cup finals. Prior to the final World Cup qualification match against Iran, Choi Kang-Hee, then coach of South Korea, complained that Iran did not provide adequate training facilities during Korea's away qualification match against Iran on 17 October 2012. The manager of Iran, Carlos Queiroz showed anger at this statement by claiming that Choi humiliated Iranian people and demanded an immediate apology. Instead, Choi stated that Iran seemed to be afraid enough to make unnecessary provocations and the team would have to watch the world cup from TV. In revenge, Queiroz pinned the sad face of Choi on his black polo shirt and mocked him. Queiroz also offered to send Choi the jersey of Uzbekistan national football team as Choi stated he would defeat Iran to rather qualify for the World Cup finals with Uzbekistan. After Iran's victory against South Korea in their final qualification match, Queiroz showing his anger at the South Korean coach with a raised fist gesture which was deemed offensive by the Korean players and staff, almost causing a fight between the two teams. Queiroz had answered previously to Choi that Iran had fairly shared what they had with the Korean team on their visit to Iran. Choi then returned to Jeonbuk and led them to four more K League 1 titles in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018. He also led the team to their second Asian Champions League title in 2016, making him one of the most successful managers in Asia of all time.
