As a child, Yeun told The Guardian in 2021, he felt like he was different people at school and at home. Because of that, he was "really drawn to Will Smith" in "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." "When you think about the Fresh Prince, it was kind of that concept. He's caught between places, just trying to be himself," he said. In his acting roles, he's strived to give audiences characters they can relate to like he could to Smith's.
"Where I try and speak from as an actor is always feeling, I guess, isolated," he said. "I warred with that for a lot of my life – of feeling disconnected from a system, a majority, or a group. I deeply wanted to connect, so I would bend and twist and break myself to try and conform."