Career
She claimed the two top honors at the MBC Drama in 2000 for best actress and favorite actress. However, in 2001, she was arrested on charges of taking methamphetamines (a stimulant also known as "philopon" or "ice"), with her live-in lover, a married manitoba She was sentenced to one year and six months in jail, but was released on bail after serving 78 days in 2002.
The drug scandal tarnished her "pure" image.
Broadcasters and advertisers were quick to scrap contracts, and to dodge a public lynching in the media, Hwang withdrew from the public eye for five years. In 2006, Hwang made her comeback by appearing in the music video "Because Love is Always Like That" by WAX, then resumed her acting career with a leading role in the 2007 television drama Salt Doll.
Though she never recovered the popularity she had once enjoyed, Hwang has since starred in the Hong Sang-soo film, the four-episode Drama Special Foreign My Son (2011), and the omnibus movie In Between (2012).