Cooper sports a mullet as part of his goal to make Australia a more welcoming place for Koreans
The jiu-jitsu athlete spent a year in Daegu, South Korea, on a working holiday program in 2023.
He now creates videos to help Koreans better understand and connect with Australian life. Cooper Burnham, better known as Hojucooper (Hoju, the Korean word for Australia＋ Cooper), is quickly emerging as one of the most popular content creators in the Korean-Australian community. With his signature mullet hairstyle — short in the front and sides, long in the back — he teaches Australian slang in fluent Korean on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. His videos range from unpacking everyday expressions like snag (sausage), arvo (afternoon), fair dinkum (genuine/real), and good on ya (well done), to more colourful Aussie lingo such as chockers (very crowded), woop-woop (middle of nowhere), and Harold Holt (salt — a cheeky nod to the prime minister who famously disappeared at sea).
Hojucooper began creating this unique content in December 2024, and with just over 130 posts, he has already amassed more than 24,000 Instagram followers. His main audience are young Koreans on working holiday visas in Australia.
Hyejin Lee, who has lived in Australia for the past three years, is one of them. She first came across Hojucooper when a friend shared one of his posts on his Instagram story. 'I saw a guy recommending snacks that are available at an Australian supermarket. It was strange — he obviously looked Australian but spoke fluent Korean. I couldn't stop watching,' she recalled.
After watching more of his content, she was surprised to learn that Hojucooper had actually experienced a working holiday program in Korea himself. 'He wasn't just some random Aussie talking about his culture. He had lived in Korea, and that made what he said feel more relatable and genuine to me,' she said.
Burnham is a prize-winning jiu-jitsu competitor and represented Australia multiple times at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. In 2023, he suffered a serious knee injury, and that setback unexpectedly changed the course of his life. 'After the surgery, I had to take a break from training to fully recover. Around that time, I had a Korean girlfriend and thought it would be a great chance to meet her parents and experience Korean culture,' he explained.
He travelled to Daegu, his girlfriend's hometown — South Korea's fourth-largest city, home to over 2.3 million people. While there, he reconnected with a Korean jiu-jitsu athlete he had met at the previous world championship and was offered a coaching position at his studio. Even though he had studied Korean for a couple of years back in Australia, Burnham found real-life communication in Korea to be extremely challenging. Unlike Seoul, Daegu has a much smaller foreign population, so speaking Korean was not an option, but a necessity. 'I couldn't speak much Korean, and I couldn't even jump because of my injury," he said. "But the coach kindly gave me a chance. I just remembered a few body part names in Korean and taught kids using simple phrases like 'gaseum (chest) and mileo (push)' or 'sonmok (wrist) danggye (pull)'."
The jiu-jitsu studio became the perfect place for him to immerse himself in Korean life, make friends, and improve his language skills. He expressed deep gratitude to the families and relatives of his ex-girlfriend, with whom he spent Korean traditional holidays and regular weekends. "Everyone helped me so much in Korea. I'm really grateful for all the support and had a truly wonderful experience," he said.
After completing his one-year working holiday in Korea, Burnham returned to Australia and began working at a jiu-jitsu studio on the Central Coast in New South Wales. There, he met a number of Koreans who were in Australia on working holiday visas — and something stood out to him. 'I had a really authentic experience living in Korea. But when I came back to Australia, I realised many Koreans here only hang out with other Koreans," he said. "They work in Korean restaurants and don't really get to know Australia. Even people who've lived here for 10 or 20 years often don't know much about the country." Hyejin Lee's personal experience echoes Burnham's observation. "To be honest, it's not easy to meet Australians and make friends here. A lot of Korean backpackers work in Korean-run places like restaurants or farms, and mostly hang out with other Koreans," she said. "I even went to meet-up events to make friends, but it was not easy."
For people like Lee, Burnham offers advice drawn from his own experience. "I really encourage people to join a gym, fitness class, or learn a sport like jiu-jitsu or tennis. That way, you're forced to speak English and meet Australians," he said.
Burnham began making Korean-language videos to show Koreans a more authentic side of Australia. He introduced his parents' country home in Mildura — complete with horses, dogs, and cats — and even filmed himself inviting young Koreans to his mum's dinner table. To many fans, Hojucooper is instantly recognisable by his signature mullet. Burnham says he keeps the hairstyle to appear more authentically Australian. "A lot of people tell me I'd look much more handsome without the mullet," he laughed. "In the countryside, the mullet is still pretty popular. If you go to Mildura or rural Victoria, heaps of people have this hairstyle, but in Korea, the mullet is still seen as old-fashioned, kind of like it was in Australia before it came back with AFL players a couple of years ago. So, I get a lot of comments asking me to cut it." Still, Burnham insists that for him, the mullet is more than a hairstyle. "I've got a mullet, and I want to show people that even people with a mullet can learn another language and welcome people to Australia," he said.
"I want to keep my Australian look while breaking stereotypes. When people see me, they think I'm a very stereotypical Australian guy, but I'm not at all. And I want to break that stereotype and show just how welcoming and good Australia is." Burnham also believes that learning another language can play a big role in making Australia a more inclusive place. "I think if more Australians learned a second language, they would be less racist because they would understand how hard it is to speak another language," he said.
He finishes with a few friendly tips for Australians who want to better connect with Koreans living in Australia: 1. Don't ask them if they are from North or South — most Koreans abroad are from South Korea, so the question can feel unnecessary or even awkward. 2. Speak slowly and clearly. 3. Avoid using too much slang. 4. Don't be afraid to use an online translator. 5. Use welcoming body language and always smile.
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