Kwan Jang Nim Michael Dunchok is 33 years old, and began his training in Kuk Sool Kwan at the age of 11. From a young age, Master Dunchok was interested in learning in all its forms, and had an insatiable appetite to understand the world. His involvement in martial arts has grown out of that fascination, as has his approach to teaching it.

When Master Dunchok was young, martial arts seemed to be represented in popular culture as the one thing that offered legitimate hidden knowledge, and at the same time seemed to be about perfecting an individual. After looking around at all the martial arts schools in the area, he found Grandmaster Huh’s school, and was impressed immediately. Grandmaster Huh’s studio lacked the fancy trappings of the other dojos in the area, but Master Dunchok and his father both agreed that Master Huh’s presence was overwhelming. He began practicing for several hours everyday, and would sometimes go to the studio directly after school. After a performance at his blue belt test which impressed Grandmaster Huh’s visiting colleagues, Master Dunchok was given accelerated training, and received his first degree black belt at the age of 12, after a little under two years of practice. Master Dunchok was very active with Master Huh’s studio throughout his high school years as well, continuing the same habits of hard practice with which he began his martial arts training.

Master Dunchok attended Humboldt State University, where he majored in Theater Arts and graduated in May of 2000. Master Dunchok is a classically trained tenor, an illustrator, and a student of Chinese and Latin. He has also studied wushu and currently studies taijiquan. He has since been involved with acting on stage plays and musicals as well as doing martial arts stuntwork and fight scenes on film and television. He opened the Kuk Sool Kwan dojang in Orange County out of a desire to preserve the unique martial heritage of Kuk Sool Kwan and to afford himself the lifestyle and practice time to take his martial arts skill to the grandmaster level and beyond.

Master Dunchok is a 5th degree black belt in Kuk Sool, and has trained and graduated black belt students. He holds a recognition as a Certified Personal Trainer from the National Federation of Professional Trainers. He is currently enrolled at Southern California University of Health Sciences, where he is pursuing certification as an acupuncturist and herbalist, a longstanding requirement for Grandmastery of Kuk Sool Kwan.