Ken Jeong’s net worth is estimated at $14 million, built across a career that spans licensed medicine, scene-stealing film performances, a long-running television sitcom he created himself, and seven consecutive seasons as a judge on one of Fox’s highest-rated reality competition shows. Born Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong, he is best known as the unhinged gangster Leslie Chow in The Hangover trilogy and as Señor Ben Chang in NBC’s Community.
Updated March 2026: According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jeong earned more than $5 million for The Hangover Part III alone, and his ongoing role as a judge on The Masked Singer — now in its 14th season on Fox as of January 2026 — is estimated by industry sources to generate between $1.25 million and $2.5 million per season.
Ken Jeong was born on July 13, 1969, in Detroit, Michigan, to Korean immigrant parents. His family relocated to Greensboro, North Carolina, where his father D.K. Jeong worked as a professor at North Carolina A&T State University. Jeong attended Walter Hines Page High School, graduating in 1986. He then enrolled at Duke University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1990. He went on to complete his Doctor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine in 1995, followed by an internal medicine residency at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. It was during his residency that Jeong began performing stand-up comedy, winning the Big Easy Laff-Off competition and earning the informal title of the Funniest Doctor in America. After moving to Los Angeles in 1998, he continued practicing internal medicine at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills while simultaneously auditioning for acting and comedy roles.
Jeong’s professional breakthrough came through small television roles — a guest spot on Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000), a cameo on The Office (2005), and an appearance on Entourage (2004) — before Judd Apatow cast him as a physician in Knocked Up (2007). That role led directly to director Todd Phillips auditioning him for The Hangover, where Jeong’s portrayal of the volatile criminal Leslie Chow became the film’s most quoted performance. The Hangover grossed $467 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, making it one of the highest-grossing R-rated comedies in history at the time.
Jeong reprised the Chow role in The Hangover Part II (2011) and The Hangover Part III (2013), the latter of which paid him over $5 million according to Business Insider. In parallel, he joined the cast of NBC’s critically acclaimed sitcom Community (2009–2015), playing the unstable Spanish teacher Señor Ben Chang across six seasons. In 2015, Jeong created, wrote, and co-executive produced Dr. Ken for ABC — a semi-autobiographical sitcom in which he starred as a physician-turned-comedian — which ran for two seasons through 2017. Other notable film credits include Pineapple Express (2008), Role Models (2008), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Pain & Gain (2013), Ride Along 2 (2016), and Crazy Rich Asians (2018). In 2019, Jeong released the stand-up special You Complete Me, Ho on Netflix, drawing directly from his wife’s cancer battle. That same year, he became a founding judge on Fox’s The Masked Singer, a role he has held for every season since, including Season 14 which premiered January 7, 2026, per Wikipedia. On October 23, 2024, the Hollywood Walk of Fame honored Jeong with the 2,794th star at 1708 Vine Street in the Television category.
Jeong’s wealth draws from five distinct income streams across two careers:
Ken Jeong met Tran Ho at a doctors’ happy hour in Los Angeles while both were practicing medicine. They married in September 2004. Ho, who is Vietnamese-American, continues to practice family medicine. In 2007, the couple welcomed twin daughters, Alexa and Zooey, born May 26. Approximately a year after the twins’ birth, Ho was diagnosed with stage III triple-negative breast cancer with a 23 percent survival probability. Jeong has spoken publicly about crafting his performance as Leslie Chow partly to make his wife laugh during chemotherapy. After roughly two years of treatment, Ho was declared cancer-free — an outcome Jeong has called the greatest moment of his life, surpassing even his wedding and the birth of his daughters, as he wrote in a piece for HuffPost. As of 2025, she has been cancer-free for over 16 years, according to People. The family lives in Calabasas, California. Jeong is an active advocate for breast cancer awareness and has partnered with the American Heart Association on public health campaigns.
Ken Jeong’s net worth is estimated at $14 million as of 2026. The bulk of this figure comes from his film work — most notably the Hangover trilogy, where he earned over $5 million for Part III alone per The Hollywood Reporter — combined with recurring income from seven consecutive seasons judging Fox’s The Masked Singer, television work on Community and Dr. Ken, and stand-up and endorsement revenue.
Ken Jeong’s wife is Dr. Tran Ho (known publicly as Tran Jeong), a Vietnamese-American family medicine physician. The couple met at a hospital social event in Los Angeles when both were working as doctors, and they married in September 2004. Tran survived a stage III triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis in 2008, a story Jeong brought to national attention through his Netflix special and multiple interviews. The two celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2024, with Jeong posting a tribute on Instagram, per People.
Ken Jeong is 56 years old as of March 2026. He was born on July 13, 1969, in Detroit, Michigan. His family moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where he was raised. His full birth name is Kendrick Kang-Joh Jeong, and he is of Korean descent. Jeong’s IMDb biography confirms these details.
Ken Jeong stands 5 feet 5 inches tall (165 cm), as listed on his IMDb profile. Some fan sources list him at 5 feet 4 inches (163 cm), but IMDb’s official record of 5’5″ is the most consistently cited figure. He is one of the shorter leading comedic actors in Hollywood.
Ken Jeong has two daughters: twins Alexa and Zooey Jeong, born May 26, 2007. The girls turned 18 in May 2025. Both attended their father’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in October 2024 alongside their mother Tran. Jeong has frequently described his daughters as his wife’s motivation to fight her cancer diagnosis and has brought them into the public eye at major career milestones, as documented by People.
Ken Jeong’s total annual income is not publicly disclosed, but documented contracts provide strong reference points. His judging fee for The Masked Singer is estimated at $1.25 million to $2.5 million per season by Yahoo Life. The highest single-project payment on record is the $5 million-plus for The Hangover Part III, reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Commercial work for brands including Pepto-Bismol and Coke Zero, stand-up touring fees, and producing credits on Dr. Ken add additional annual income on top of these figures.
Ken Jeong lives in Calabasas, California. He purchased his current home there in late 2016 for $3.95 million, as reported by Realtor.com. The Tudor-style property covers 6,745 square feet on nearly 0.4 acres and features 4 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a two-story living room, a chef’s kitchen, a home gym, a wine cellar, and a swimming pool. The property was valued at approximately $5.23 million as of 2023 by ClutchPoints, reflecting Calabasas real estate appreciation since the 2016 purchase.