By Todd C. Elliott
Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute has taken “the foot, fist way” to achieve nearly 50 years of being a staple Lake Charles local business. However, the long journey is about more than Tae Kwon Do, the Korean martial art and Olympic sport introduced to the Lake Area in 1976. When the first location of the Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute opened in downtown Lake Charles, there was no other martial arts school in the area except for Lake Charles Karate, which did spar with Master John Choi for dominance of the market in Southwest Louisiana. It was literally two different schools of thought and martial arts. Whereas karate is Japanese and translates as “open hands,” tae kwon do is Korean and translates as “foot – fist – the way.”
If Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute is a fixture of Lake Charles, then Master John Choi is a Lake Charles icon. However, Master John Choi is not “Master Choi” any longer. He is now “Grandmaster Choi,” and his son, Edward Choi, is now the reigning “Master Choi” of Lake Charles.
Father and son both have a heart, mind and soul for business that’s kept Master Choi Tae Kwon Do in business for half a century in Lake Charles. And John Choi’s influence and recognition go beyond Lake Charles.
Grandmaster John Choi recently termed out as president of the U.S. Taekwondo Grand Masters Society. That makes him the top-ranking black belt in Tae Kwon Do in the United States. The accomplishment also made his son proud.
“I like to tell all of my friends and students that my father is the Michael Jordan of Tae Kwon Do,” said Master Edward Choi, 42. “What he has done is unbelievable. And he’s the humblest guy you’ll ever meet. And he had humble beginnings.”
Grandmaster John Choi, 72, left the city of Seoul, South Korea, with no money and no English language under his black belt sometime after 1973, when he was awarded first place Korean National Player in the first-ever World Tae Kwon Do Championship. As a young man, he was a soldier in a Special Forces unit in the South Korean Army — he was a Tae Kwon Do all-star member.
With no command of English, he took his first American job at the O’Hare International Airport as a janitor. From Chicago, he went on to New York, where he worked in retail for a few months, and then sold fresh fruits, and vegetables on the streets.
“I was a champion before I came to the United States,” said John Choi. “But my situation was upside down, like not good at all. I spent all my money on a plane ticket, had next to no English. I had to start from the bottom, one step at a time. I was thinking I was going to make something big (happen) in America.”
While New York wasn’t a culture shock for the future Grandmaster, Southwest Louisiana was. He recalled how Lake Charles welcomed him.
“I came from Seoul, which is a big city like New York — and actually has more population than New York now,” he said. “New York was quite different in the 1970s, much more dangerous.
“A friend of mine from New York went to Lake Charles, and (he) told me that I should come to Lake Charles. All my other friends told me that I was crazy to move there. They all told me that it was swamp and alligators in backyards. I was terrified to try boiled crawfish for the first time.
“Next door to my first studio in 1976, there was a bar. And they tried to make me feel welcome and offered me boiled crawfish. In Korea, we never eat crawfish. So, I lied to them and told them that I had already eaten. But later, my Korean friends in Welsh told me that crawfish is good to eat and not diseased. So, I like crawfish now.
”His first three years in Lake Charles was a time of planting seeds for his future. His goal of making “something big in the United States” was kept alive with a positive mindset and the guiding principles of tae kwon do.
He started his school with only a few fledgling students. Not having enough to pay his rent, he took an iron-working job at one of the local plants. His shift ended at 3:30 pm, so he had some time to prepare for his 8:30 pm Tae Kwon Do class.
One of the earliest students at Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute is renowned local OBGYN Dr. Stan Kordisch. For more than 40 years, Kordisch and his children have benefited from the connection to John Choi.
“I consider Master Choi to be one of my best friends. He’s been very influential in the world tae kwon do community,” said Kordisch. “He’s an excellent instructor, and I have never heard him curse or talk about another person — ever. Lake Charles is very lucky to have someone of his caliber. His emphasis (has been) on building a strong community through his tae kwon do teachings.”
But John Choi has achieved so much more. Those early days of persevering with two jobs and one dream pushed him to achieve national recognition as a president of the U.S. Tae kwon do Grand Masters Society some 40 years later.
Reflecting with pride on his father’s story, Edward looks ahead to the future. To best follow in his father’s footsteps, the son must know the path the father took.
“So, in the old days, in the city of Kukkiwon, which is the capital of tae kwon do in Korea, with all these immigrants that moved from Korea, they created their own thing, which is The Grandmaster Society,” said Master Edward Choi. “My dad worked his way up from secretary to vice president and then became president. And now his term is over, so he gave that up recently to the next Grandmaster.”
Edward Choi was born in Lake Charles, so his upbringing was vastly different from his father’s. But some things were passed on from one generation to another. Growing up in the 1980s, often sleeping and eating in the Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute, Edward learned to train not just his body but his mind.
“When I was growing up, it was martial arts my whole life,” said Edward. “Then, as I started getting older, I started watching action movies: Bruce Lee, Jean Claude-Van Damme. And I would see these muscular guys doing kicks and punches. I was like ‘wait, I do all that,’ so it motivated me. But if you think about what kids are seeing today, now with the internet and movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to The Avengers and Marvel movies … it’s all martial arts. Young people today are seeing this on TV like a professional basketball or football team. I think people like that.
“For the kids’ sake, parents push kids for the mental aspect of tae kwon do. Baseball, soccer, football … all great sports. Kids learn about competition, winning, losing, leadership and working as a team. But the difference with martial arts is that we are really driving the values and principles of endurance, perseverance and indomitable spirit.”
One of those principles is having a belt system, from white to black, which creates goals. Edward said that a positive attitude is one main key to making that, which seems impossible, possible.
“If you want a black belt, you have to put the time in and earn every color until you achieve your ultimate goal,” said Edward. “It’s just like with school. Or doing whatever you want to do in life. You can do it. And that’s what we’re ingraining in young people’s minds now is that if you want something in life, you’ve got to earn it. Because nothing is free, no one’s going to give it to you.
“No matter what happens in life, you’ve got to get up. That’s what I teach every day. Bad things happen: a family death, COVID, a layoff, break-up or divorce, or whatever. The question is, when you get knocked down to the ground, are you going to get up? Or are you going to stay down? And that’s the mindset that my dad taught me. You’ve got to get up, you’ve got to keep fighting, no matter what your situation is. And that’s mental. It has nothing to do with muscles or going to the gym every day and getting bulked up. Sometimes it’s the smaller people who have the biggest hearts.”
Grandmaster John Choi has accomplished so much that it’s hard to condense into one magazine article and, at the same time, it’s almost hard to believe. There was a time when Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute had locations in Sulphur, Moss Bluff and more than one in Lake Charles. COVID-19 closed many of the satellite locations, but the heart of Master Choi’s teachings is now in his main studio at 1415 E. Prien Lake Road in a building of his own construction and design.
This came about after he achieved his goal of becoming a Louisiana licensed, commercial contractor in 2013, when he founded and became president of Choi Construction, LLC. Before that, John was an adjunct professor at McNeese State University from 2007 to 2020. In 2017, the grandmaster was recognized by the City of Lake Charles when then-Mayor Randy Roach declared April 22nd “Choi’s Day” in honor of the 40th anniversary of Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute. In 2024, President Joe Biden awarded Grandmaster Choi a national and global recognition that culminated with The President’s Volunteer Service Award.
So, how did one man accomplish all these things in 72 years of life? He followed his own guiding principles, which are considered Master Choi’s Daily Seven Principles of Life. His words will be his son’s words and that of his grandsons for future students of Master Choi Tae Kwon Do Institute: “I always have a positive mental attitude, I am proud of my career, I have a goal, I do my best in any circumstance. I have confidence in myself and my ability, I have determination and persistence, and I make things happen.”
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