Exclusive Interview: Tony Chung Chats Kung Fu Season 3, Dennis’ Journey of Self-Discovery, and More

Tony Chung is a multifaceted talent who can currently be seen in his starring role in the CW’s Kung Fu.

After an earthquake hit Chinatown in the Season 2 finale, Season 3 opens with Nicky (Olivia Liang), her family, and her community attempting to rebuild in more ways than one. Nicky, still reeling from her abrupt breakup with her boyfriend Henry (Eddie Liu), and the shocking death of her nemesis-turned-ally Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman), puts on a brave face as she juggles a new job teaching kung fu while fighting a growing crimewave in San Francisco. Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) struggles to keep Harmony Dumplings afloat, while rebuilding the restaurant; and Jin (Tzi Ma) helps the rest of the community get back on its feet. Althea (Shannon Dang) has lost her company and finds herself jobless, living in the cramped Shen house, while Dennis (Tony Chung) works a variety of service gigs to help make ends meet. Ryan (Jon Prasida) adjusts to cohabitating with boyfriend Sebastian (JB Tadena), while working fulltime as an ER resident; and Evan (Gavin Stenhouse) embarks on a new legal venture. But just as Nicky and the Shens are finding their footing, Nicky is thrown on her heels by the introduction of a mysterious vigilante, Bo (guest star Ben Levin) — and the shattering return of a woman who appears to be her deceased shifu, Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai). Pei-Ling’s shocking return will engulf Nicky in an epic and dangerous story, filled with mystery and magic… a story that will have momentous consequences for Nicky and the whole Shen family.

Pop Culturalist caught up with Tony to chat about Season 3 of Kung Fu, his character’s journey to self-discovery, and more.

PC: At the end of Season 2, Dennis is disowned by his parents and a lot of his identity is stripped away from him. How did that change the way that you approach this character heading into Season 3?
Tony: As actors and artists, you’re constantly going through struggles in between jobs or dealing with rejection. I went from studying electrical engineering to being a starving musician to modeling to acting. I’ve been through the ups and downs of this career. That definitely helped prepare me for Dennis’ big change from Season 2 to 3.

The other interesting thing about this situation is that Althea and Dennis are going through it together. It’d be very different if only one of them was struggling, but it’s Althea with her startup situation and Dennis with his parents and being disowned. They’re going through it together. They go into support mode for each other and for themselves. I know for myself, when you make a change like this, whether it’s voluntary or involuntary, you have to approach it with optimism. You have to extract what you have picked up along the way in terms of skills or experiences or the people that you’ve met, and you need to apply it and leverage it for a new venture, whatever that may be.

For Dennis, he did the same thing. He approached it with a positive mindset. As far as we know, it’s his first time standing on his own two feet, not relying on his parents and his parents’ wealth. He spends a lot of time at the apothecary anyway, so why not serve and learn how to make some coffee and drinks? By the end of the season, you’ll see he’s really ramped up and leveled up a lot in that arena.

Also, he drives a Tesla. That’s revealed at some point in Season 3. Why not use that nice ride to do some Uber driving? Dennis approached it in a positive way. It’s reaping dividends throughout the season.

PC: What’s the strangest job that you’ve ever had to do in pursuit of being a storyteller?
Tony: I’m going to let you decide between two. The first is when I was in high school. My mom would always cut my hair. I had a haircut similar to the one right now—it was a little shorter on the sides, but it was basically what we call the Asian fade. It doesn’t have to be restricted to Asians, but we called it the Asian fade in the Bay Area. She would cut my hair every week or two. After a while, I started noticing that the gradient wasn’t really working. There was a high contrast between the bottom part and the upper part. I was like, “You know what? I’ve always been pretty artistic,” and I decided to give it a go myself. I took the mirror, and I would do the thing.

At first, I was terrible, but I got better and better to the point where I mastered the fade. My friends were like, “Dude, that’s a great fade. Where’d you go to get that?” I was like, “Dude, I actually cut it myself.” So, a few friends started asking me to cut their hair. I was like, “Well, I’m spending my time, energy, and skills doing this, so why don’t I charge a bit for it?” I was charging five dollars a pop. It was just for fun, but it was kind of cool. It was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.

The other one was when I was a musician in Asia. I was based in Taipei, Taiwan. We had a band. We were touring. But as many musicians know, it’s not a steady paycheck being a musician. You make what you can. You hope that along the way, people will experience your music and you can get an income from it, but it’s very difficult. I remember I was like, “I got to make ends meet. I got to buy dinner for my girlfriend. I’ve got to buy dinner for myself, pay my rent, and all that stuff.” I was like, “All right. What can I do?”

In Taiwan, they have these night markets and all these weird and cool things at them. There’s a lot of interesting stuff. But I started noticing these really interesting tech accessories that were well-designed and undervalued (in my opinion) for how much they were selling for. I was like, “I wonder if there’s a way that I can take advantage of this.” Long story short, I found a way to sell these products online. Then, I started buying them in masses from a factory in China. For a while, I was selling tech accessories through the internet. It was actually pretty lucrative for a while. You got to do what you got to do. Just like Dennis, right? When times are tough, you really got to hit the ground, hustle, and figure out a way to make ends meet.

PC: Mentorship is such a cornerstone of this series. Who were the people in your own life who shaped the storyteller you are today?
Tony: There have been so many people that have helped along the way in different capacities, from friends to family to instructors, but I would say in a roundabout way, it was my dad. He was a big mentor for sure. It took me twenty or so years of being around him to finally arrive at this revelation. I say that because growing up, I had a lot of friction with my dad.

He grew up in Taiwan. He was in the army for several years, then he immigrated to Texas and had my brother and me. He trained us in a way that was similar to the format by which he was trained growing up, which meant he was very strict.

I was always artistic from an early age. I loved drawing. I loved music and all these things. He would always try to deter me from pursuing artistic endeavors. There would be so much friction because we would butt heads. I’m like, “No.” I had posters of bands in my room. I bleached my hair. I painted my fingernails. I was playing in my band at school. My dad was very much against that. In retrospect, it’s because he believed that it wouldn’t yield a sustainable income in the future. He was trying to protect me by telling me to focus on studying for the SATs and AP tests so that I could make a living for myself when I graduated from high school and college. There was a lot of friction.

I remember the first time that I expressed interest in playing the guitar. He was like, “Oh, yeah? Sure. I got a broken nylon-string classical guitar in my closet from my army days. We’ll superglue it together and you could give it a go.” At the time, he was like, “This might be a short-lived interest. I’m not going to buy a whole guitar for him. Show me that you are going to pursue this and actually try to play the guitar.”

I started off with this superglued nylon, classical string guitar. Eventually, I graduated to the point where I wanted to get an electric guitar because I was really into grunge and rock music. My dad was like, “Okay, cool. I’ll buy you an electric guitar, but you got to play three songs for me. You got to sing and play these three songs for me. The first song has to be in Chinese. The second song has to be in English. The third one, you have to create. You have to write a song.”

I was like, “Dude.” I barely spoke Chinese. In one swoop, he made me learn enough Chinese to play a song. Then, I played a song by Nirvana called “Polly,” which I learned on my own. Then, I wrote a song that was instrumental. When I sat down with him, I played everything for him. He was like, “All right. Good.” Then, he let me buy an electric guitar.

I was really resentful of that at the time. I was like, “Dude, why are you making me work for this?” All of my friends got whatever they wanted immediately. But in retrospect, he made me work for it. He taught me what it meant to have a work ethic and to reap the rewards.

I’ve applied that lesson to all areas of my career because you deal with rejection. There are times when you’re not working. You have to keep going. You have to keep getting better. You have to keep exercising your skills and working that muscle memory and get better and better. That’s the only way you’re going to see the results. That was really awesome I did that.

Now, after so many years of what seemed like deterring me from being an artist, he’s seen the results and he sees, more importantly, that I take this seriously and that I’m getting better. People are recognizing that and they’re like, “He’s putting out art that is resonating with people.” Now, he’s very supportive. He’s constantly asking me, “How can I support you on this journey?”

PC: Speaking of music, in episode 309, we’re going to see you return to your roots with a bit of music. What was your reaction when you initially read that script? Had you pitched the idea of a possible musical episode to Christina [M. Kim] or Bob [Berens]?
Tony: No, I hadn’t pitched that to Christina or Bob because Shannon [Dang] has done enough of that for all of us. When I got episode 309, I was stoked because it was hilarious. I’m not going to give too much away, but the way that it read was so funny and quirky. I loved it. I feel like when the show started, it was like, “Oh, Dennis is this good-looking dude from high school that happens to be a mathlete.” I like how through the seasons, they’ve really leaned into the humor aspects of Dennis and the relatable, personal, quirky, nerdy, humorous parts of Dennis, which I think is so cool. From his Dungeons & Dragons bachelor party, the cardboard cutout, to the “Clementine” episode.

I’m sure that the other cast members would attest to this; I definitely have a dorky, nerdy side to me. When I was modeling, a lot of it was very brooding. For some reason, my career went that route. I mean I definitely had those smiley campaigns and stuff, but the vast majority of my work was very serious. I’m proud of it and it’s awesome, but I really missed being able to express myself artistically, which to a certain extent includes the nerdy, quirky nuances that I had.

I was able to do that through music, but through modeling, not so much. It’s cool that they’ve incorporated that into the show. I would like to think that through the seasons, they’ve gotten to know me a little better and they’ve been like, “Tony has this side to him. Write that into the show.” It’s really cool what they’ve done.

PC: There’s a new level of vulnerability that you’ve been able to tap into with Dennis given that he’s had to struggle for the first time in his life. In 306, we learn that his parents have extended an olive branch that leads to a very vulnerable conversation with Althea. How did you prepare for that scene, in particular, because you tackled it with so much nuance?
Tony: Thank you. If you really think about it, Dennis rejected his parents mostly because of Althea. I feel like the rejection of his dad, in particular, stemmed from his love and allegiance to Althea, the Chase Matheson incident, and all these things.

You see it in Episode 6 when they have this conversation. Chloe reveals to Althea that, “Hey, dad actually extended an olive branch.” Dennis said no because he’s protecting Althea. So, Althea sits down with him and finally gives him the green light and permission to be like, “Hey, no, you should talk to your family.” That was a huge, momentous moment for Dennis. It’s like, “I’m getting permission from the person I’ve been protecting all this time to do this.” That was what finally catapulted him to be able to do that. That’s the way that I perceived the whole situation.

PC: We know that you can’t say too much, but is there anything that you can tease about what’s ahead for Dennis as he tries to maintain this new sense of identity while his family also tries to pull him back into the family business?
Tony: Without revealing too much, in the final three or four episodes, you’re going to see the Soong family and the Shen family get along, which has not been a thing for most of the series because of how different they are. It was really fun playing that out. I can’t wait for audiences to see that.

You’ll start seeing that there are some bigger issues that come along the way, not just for Althea, but for Nicky and the entire crew. It gets bad enough that they need to get the Soong family involved. They have to hold hands and work together. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.

PC: While we hope that Kung Fu goes on for many more seasons, as you look ahead, what are the types of roles and projects that you gravitate towards?
Tony: Man, I would love to play something dramatic. I’ve been watching a lot of very dramatic television recently, and I always have. It’s something that I would aspire to do, and I think I’d be able to do a pretty good job at. That would be fun.

On the flip side, my background is in tech, so things like Silicon Valley, Mystic Quest, and shows like that I’m a big fan of. It’d be really fun to be part of that world.

I just watched White Lotus a few months back, and it really resonated with me because it’s such a unique show. Season 3 is going to shoot in Asia, so I’m your boy. I’m right here. I love how weird and quirky that show is, and it’s still so relatable. We all go on vacation and run into these different families and walks of life who have all these different quirks, nuances, and idiosyncrasies.

I also just watched Andor and that was amazing. The Last of Us is amazing. Every time I’m watching these shows, I’m like, “Oh man. This is amazing. Where do I see myself in this show?” I’m a mixed bag and I’m open. I’m excited about any opportunity that comes my way.

To keep up with Tony, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch Kung Fu every Wednesday at 9/8c on the CW.

Photo Credit: Rudy Martinez