Yul Kwon, the winner of Survivor: Cook Islands, is an interesting guy. Or at least it seems that way. The glimpses we get of people like Yul on a reality show are small, and often meaningless. The amount of action taken out of context that's not indicative of a person's true personality is significant. Yul, had the producers wanted to, could've been made into a villain this season. It's called editing. I'm willing to guess that Ozzy received a great edit, because CBS wanted to create a hero/sympathetic character out of him. And they did. So, is Yul truly the guy we know from Survivor or would he be much different if you met him under normal circumstances? Perusing Yul's biography sheds some light on the man, giving us a pretty solid blueprint.
Born in Queens, New York, to two South Korean immigrants, Yul and his family eventually moved west to California where Yul was the valedictorian at his high school (as well as a varsity water polo player). He went to Stanford for undergraduate, where he attended classes for officers training for the Marine Corps. He ended up graduating with a degree in Theoretical Computer Systems. After Stanford, he attended Yale Law School, where he received something called the Juris Doctor Degree, while also serving on the editorial board on the Yale Law Journal. Since graduation, Yul has been a jack of all trades, working extensively in both the public and private sectors. He's worked as a legislative aide for Joseph Lieberman, as a litigator for a number of law firms, and now as a consultant for McKinsey, working for Google's business strategy group. So, I guess what I'm saying is this: Yul's kind of a big deal. He's a winner, has succeeded in everything he's done, is familiar with strategy and manipulation, and is very athletic. If that doesn't sound like the perfect Survivor contestant, I don't know what is. Yul Kwon is a complex guy, with a genius level intellect. He also seems to be a genuinely nice guy, works well with people, although he may not be totally comfortable as the focal point in any forum. Yul will go down as an all-time great Survivor player, and his pedigree outside Survivor only goes to show that, as impressive as he was in the game, it's more impressive what he's done outside of it. -Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer