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Martin Kove, recognized for his role as the primary adult antagonist in the original “Karate Kid” film, reportedly bit a fellow co-star from the TV spinoff “Cobra Kai.” The incident was caught on police body camera footage, showing her addressing him about the situation.
Alicia Hannah-Kim faced off at length against Kove outside of a convention last month in Puyallup, Washington.
“Sir, were you raised in a ditch?” she is heard saying in body camera footage. “Is that how people treated you when you were a child?”
She told the responding officer she had tried to privately tell Kove that the biting was inappropriate behavior, but that he snapped at her.
“Motherf—er, you yelled at me,” she said.
In video, Kove admitted biting her, apologized for that, and he insisted that after the incident, he tried to check on her, but that Hannah-Kim”s husband intercepted him before he could find her. Both actors had described their working relationship up to this point in friendly terms.
“I was just playing because we’re very playful together,” Kove said, “and I bit down too hard and I meant to–”
“She’s got a mouth-mark on her,” the officer said.
Hannah-Kim declined to ask for charges, and simply wanted the incident documented.
The incident happened June 22 at Summer Con at the Washington State Fair.
“Alicia showed me her left arm and pointed out a very easy to see bite mark telling me that she had just been assaulted at her booth,” police wrote in the incident report, which has been reviewed by Law&Crime.
From cops:
Alicia told me she was going to her booth and tapped Martin Kove on the shoulder to say hello (all the Cobra Kai cast have an area together) and when Alicia did this Martin Kove suddenly grabbed her arm and bit her upper arm so hard it nearly drew blood, and she yelled out in pain. Once Martin Kove finished biting her arm, he grabbed her arm again and began kissing it where he had bit her (Alicia had a very noticeable bite mark on her arm that was already turning blue and bruising.) Alicia went and told her handler and her husband Sebastian Roche, and they went to speak with Martin Kove about this incident and when they did, I was told Martin Kove exploded on them saying something to the effect of how dare they confront him, and he did not do anything wrong. Alicia and Sebastian then came and found me and walked me over to Martin Kove in the back out of public view. Martin Kove was with his son and agent for Cobra Kai. I informed everyone that they were being audio and video recorded and that I was investigating an assault. Martin Kove admitted to biting Alicia’s arm and said he did it out of jest and he thought he was being funny, and they play fight all the time on the set of Cobra Kai, and he did not think it was a big deal.
A 2024 sexual harassment claim against Kove surfaced in light of the biting incident, according to Deadline. He allegedly leered at a female Cobra Kai extra and made some sort of verbal statement. Kove denied physical and emotional misconduct.
“If there was something to confess, I would be the first to say it,” he told the outlet. “Sony did ask me about the alleged incident, and I was completely transparent.”
