Jo Hyeon-woo was raised by his mother and father who was a gymnast in Seoul. Jo decided to become a goalkeeper when he saw Kim Byung-ji's lead while watching 1998 France in elementary. He later said, "I was excited about playing soccer after watching the World Cup as I could be someone else's dream." In his fifth grade, the football coach of Shinjeong Elementary School Ham Sang-heon asked for the best goalkeeper in the schoolyard as he was worried he would not have a goalkeeper. The children pointed to Jo. The coach tested Jo by making him save several shots. This would be the beginning of his career. He has been the main goalkeeper and has played in national tournaments ever since. In response, his old coach said "It was not once or twice that teams won because of Jo's success in the penalty shoot-out".
Club career
He was selected by Daegu FC in the 2013 K League 1 draft. Cho Hyun-woo, who became an FA after the 2019 season, completed basic military training and moved to Ulsan Hyundai on January 20, 2020. Ulsan held the bench in the first group match of the AFC Champions League against FC Tokyo on February 11, 2020, the first game of the season.
In May 2018 Jo Hyeon-Woo was named in South Korea’s preliminary 28-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. Originally chosen as the third-choice keeper, he ended up in the starting line-up due to the fact that he was taller than the other two keepers, thus making his debut for the first time ever in a major competition. His performances in the first two matches against Sweden and Mexico were impressive, despite both ending in defeats for South Korea. He was lauded particularly for his point-blank save against Swedish striker Marcus Berg which put him in the spotlight. Jo then played a prominent role in Germany's historic elimination from the first round of a World Cup for the first time since 1938 with a stellar performance, earning him the Man of the Match award. Cho made seven saves without conceding any goals. Unbeknownst to Jo or his teammates until the match was over, South Korea was also eliminated from the tournament despite their win. South Korea finished ahead of Germany in Group F, placing third.
Jo was named in the South Korea national under-23 football team squad for the 2018 Asian Games by wild card. He appeared in two matches against Bahrain and Kyrgyzstan in the group stage and finalized them with clean sheets. He also appeared in the round of 16 against Iran, but he was injured in the match. He was replaced by Song Bum-keun at the second half and he was named in the quarter-final starting line-up, but Song conceded 3 goals against Uzbekistan. Song received criticism for his poor performance, so Jo appeared in the semi-final and final. Jo contributed to the U-23 South Korean team’s gold medal by conceding only 2 goals in the tournament and was subsequently exempt from mandatory military service.
