Early Life and Education

Élodie Yung was born on February 22, 1981, in Paris, France. She is of mixed heritage; her father is Cambodian, and her mother is French. Yung was raised in Le Bourget, a suburb located in the Seine-Saint-Denis department, where she began practicing karate. By the age of 9, she had begun formal training and eventually earned a black belt, reflecting her early dedication and discipline.

Yung earned a law degree from the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Though she had initially planned a legal career, she later decided to pursue acting, discovering a passion for performance that led her to enroll at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). This pivot marked the beginning of her journey into film and television.

Acting Career and Breakthrough with Elektra

Yung began her acting career with roles in French television and cinema before gaining international recognition. Her breakout Hollywood role came when she was cast as Elektra Natchios in Marvel’s Daredevil on Netflix, debuting in the show’s second season. She reprised the role in the miniseries The Defenders, also produced by Netflix.

Her casting marked the first time a woman of Asian descent portrayed Elektra in a live-action adaptation. While the character’s ethnicity is not explicitly defined in the original Marvel comic books, her background has often been interpreted as Greek. Yung’s Cambodian and French heritage introduced more diversity to the character's portrayal, which was welcomed by many fans. Prior to her, Elektra had been portrayed by Jennifer Garner in the 2003 film Daredevil and its 2005 spin-off, Elektra. Yung brought a fierce yet grounded complexity to the role, earning critical and audience acclaim for her performance.