Martin Kove, the actor best known for playing the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai antagonist John Kreese, was made to leave a fan convention over the weekend after allegedly biting his co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim, according to People. Hannah-Kim filed an incident report with the police saying that when she met up with the Cobra Kai cast at Summer Con in Washington, she tapped Kove on the shoulder to greet him. Kove “suddenly grabbed her arm and bit her upper arm so hard it nearly drew blood, and she yelled out in pain,” per the report. “Once Martin Kove finished biting her arm, he grabbed her arm again and began kissing it where he had bit her.”
Hannah-Kim reportedly told her husband, actor Sebastian Roché, and the couple approached Kove to confront him about the incident. Kove “exploded on them, saying something to the effect of how dare they confront him” (per Variety), at which point Hannah-Kim got an on-site law enforcement officer involved. The officer noted in the report that Hannah-Kim “had a very noticeable bite mark on her arm that was already turning blue and bruising.” Kove allegedly “admitted to biting” his co-star but “said he did it out of jest.”
Hannah-Kim played another antagonist on Cobra Kai, Kim Da-Eun, who teams up with Kreese in the sixth season. Kove apparently told the officer at Summer Con 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.” Hannah-Kim reportedly expressed to Kove that she was upset and physically hurt by his actions, which both she and the officer informed him were illegal; Kove allegedly “said that he did not mean for it to be perceived as illegal” and reiterated that “he was just messing around.”
Hannah-Kim declined to press charges, but requested the official report to have on the record. Kove and his son also declined to write a voluntary handwritten statement, and were then “escorted out of Summer Con” at the discretion of the Cobra Kai producer that was at the venue, per People. Neither actor has made any further public comment on the incident.
