Roy Choi
Chief Executive Officer · Knighted
Roy Choi on entrepreneurship, film, gaming, culture, and why the best early-career strategy is to keep testing what interests you.
Watch the full conversation
Career Cartography · Profile 03Watch the full interview.
Roy Choi's career makes more sense in retrospect than it did in sequence. Childhood interests in movies, mathematics, and card games eventually converged across entrepreneurship, film, and regulated gaming. He left UCLA, studied in Korea, launched a casino-related business at 21, sold it, ran a film company, returned to school at USC, and founded Knighted. His central argument is not that young people should imitate those moves. It is that curiosity creates experiments, experiments reveal strengths, and sustained work allows those strengths to compound.
The moments that
shaped the path.
Two interests that kept resurfacing
Choi remembers wanting to make movies after seeing E.T. and learning card games at roughly the same age. By high school he also wanted to become an entrepreneur. None of those interests looked like a complete career plan, but together they became the raw material for one.
Leaving, building, and returning
He left UCLA during his junior year, studied in Korea, and started his first gaming business at 21. After selling it, he operated a film company, completed film school at USC, and later added a joint executive MBA from Columbia Business School and London Business School. The path alternated between building companies and deliberately returning to learn.
Culture over isolated brilliance
Knighted reflects lessons from Choi's first company. Talent without respect and teamwork eventually damages the organization, so the company emphasizes being on top of the work, in it together, and never above the work. Choi sees leadership as rigor, mutual help, and the willingness to do entry-level work when the team needs it.
How the path unfolded.
The route becomes clearer in retrospect. These are the decisions, detours, and discoveries that moved the story forward.
- ChildhoodWaypoint
Movies, mathematics, and cards
Early interests in storytelling and games became recurring threads throughout his career.
- CollegeWaypoint
Leaves UCLA
Choi stepped away during his junior year and spent a year studying in Korea.
- Age 21Waypoint
Starts his first gaming business
He turned his understanding of cards and mathematics into a casino-related company.
- 2005–2009Waypoint
Runs a film company
After selling his first business, he returned to his long-standing interest in filmmaking.
- 2009–2011Waypoint
Completes film school at USC
He went back to school to deepen the craft he had wanted to pursue since childhood.
- 2012Waypoint
Founds Knighted
His second major company applied earlier lessons about gaming, execution, and organizational culture.
- 2017Waypoint
Executive MBA
A joint program connected study at Columbia Business School and London Business School.
- TodayWaypoint
CEO and culture builder
He leads Knighted and develops ventures including Champions Club.
Five ideas worth keeping.
- 01
Curiosity is useful career data: test an interest, notice what energizes you, and keep refining.
- 02
Early in a career, internships and experiments are often more valuable than rushing to lock in a permanent identity.
- 03
Prioritize attitude, effort, and respect alongside talent; individual brilliance cannot compensate for corrosive behavior.
- 04
Investigate employers and opportunities as carefully as they investigate you.
- 05
Keep trustworthy, capable people in your life and invest in those relationships over time.
