A bizarre story has resurfaced about Karate Kid villain Martin Kove – a week after he bit his Cobra Kai co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim during a fan convention.
Back in 2013, Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader recounted a ‘weird mind-f***’ experience he had with Kove decades earlier.
One of Hader’s early jobs in Hollywood was driving Kove to work everyday on a small project, he recalled on the WTF podcast with Mark Maron.
He claimed Kove ‘got me lost on purpose,’ with the result that Hader wound up getting ‘screamed at’ by his boss, the first assistant director.
That evening, while driving home, Kove apparently offered to make it up to Hader by telling him he would buy him a milkshake and a cookie.
But when they stopped at McDonald’s to pick up the sweets, Kove, 78, pulled a jaw-dropping stunt that Hader, 47, later described as ‘the biggest f*** you ever.’
DailyMail.com has contacted Kove’s representative for comment.
A bizarre story has resurfaced about Karate Kid villain Martin Kove – a week after he bit his co-star Alicia Hannah-Kim during a fan convention; Kove pictured this February
Back in 2013, Saturday Night Live star Bill Hader recounted a ‘weird mind-f***’ experience he had with Kove decades earlier; Hader pictured this April
Hader recalled driving Kove to work ‘in my s***y car, and he got me lost on purpose, because he didn’t know the – he hadn’t read the script yet, so he was like: “Nah, nah, yeah, you don’t take this. Take Hayvenhurst. What are you getting on the 405 for?”’
Meanwhile the young Hader was sitting confused with ‘a Thomas guide on my lap,’ saying uncertainly: ‘Uh, I think I’m supposed to go here.’
Kove however ‘got me lost and the first AD, my boss, screamed at me and it was this terrible day,’ the Barry star alleged on Maron’s podcast.
‘And then on the way back, he goes – we’re driving, it’s like at night – we’re driving down the freeway and he goes: “Bill, you mad at me?”‘
Hader assured him he was not, to which Kove purportedly asked: ‘You want a milkshake?’ prompting a baffled Hader to ask: ‘What are you talking about?’
‘You want a cookie? You want a milkshake?’ Kove supposedly continued. ‘There’s a McDonald’s right up here. Pull over. We’ll get you a cookie, we’ll get you a milkshake, everything will be all right, all right?’
According to Hader, when he pulled over at McDonald’s, Kove asked him what flavor shake he wanted, and when Hader requested chocolate he said: ‘All right, chocolate milkshake. You’ll need a chocolate chip cookie. I’ll be right back. I’m so sorry.’
Kove allegedly emerged from the restaurant ‘eating the chocolate chip cookie and drinking the milkshake, and then he just sits in the back and goes: “Come on, let’s go. Go,”‘ Hader said, to Maron’s astonishment.
The strange anecdote was unearthed shortly after Kove offered up a disturbing excuse for biting Hannah-Kim at the fan convention
Hannah-Kim reported to a police officer that Kove bit her so hard it almost drew blood, causing her to scream in pain – and in new footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Kove offered up a bizarre excuse for the assault to the Kim Da-eun actress
He added: ‘It was the biggest f*** you ever. I was like, whoa. It was a weird mind-f*** of like, I’m gonna get you this thing and then he ate it in front of me and I just drove home in silence and I was like, that was my first: “Welcome to Hollywood, kid.”’
After the purported incident, Hader had to continue driving Kove ‘to work everyday and I didn’t talk to him after that, I just kind of like stayed straight ahead.’
He qualified: ‘I will say, though, I heard he was going through some sort of emotion- he was going through like a divorce or something was happening with him. So he might be a really nice guy but I just, for some reason, I rubbed him the wrong way and I don’t know what was going on.’
The strange anecdote was unearthed shortly after Kove offered up a disturbing excuse for biting Hannah-Kim at the fan convention.
Kove, 78, who played John Kreese in the Netflix drama, ignited outrage when he sank his teeth into Hannah-Kim, 37, while attending the Washington State Summer Con in Puyallup, Washington over the weekend.
Hannah-Kim reported to a police officer that Kove bit her so hard it almost drew blood, causing her to scream in pain – and in new bodycam footage obtained by DailyMail.com, Kove offered up a strange justification for the assault.
The pair are pictured onscreen together as Kim Da-eun and John Kreese
Hannah-Kim shouted at Karate Kid villain Kove: ‘You cannot bite people, that is not okay!
‘You have left a mark on my body, which in your 80-year-old brain, you think is play.
‘Sir, were you raised in a ditch? You yelled at me! You had the audacity! How dare you, sir.’
After Hannah-Kim and her husband, actor Sebastian Roche, confronted Kove after the incident, he reportedly became ‘furious and outraged and visibly angry.’
Kove was filmed apologizing for getting ‘angry’ and blamed his actions on being overtly playful with Hannah-Kim due to portraying a male sensei on screen.
He told police: ‘I tried to say that, and I, you know, to try and find her the moment I arrived in the green room just to say, I’m sorry, darling, I apologize and I didn’t mean to hurt you, you know, because we play all the time, we pop we hit, we do stuff all the time because she’s a female sensei.
‘I’m a male sensei. We have a lot of scenes together and we have a lot of fun.
‘I really apologize. I was just playing because we’re very playful together, and I bit down too hard.’
Hannah-Kim showed off faint teeth marks on her upper left bicep and told police: ‘I would like it to go on his record, on the record between me and him, so that he cannot ever do this to me again’
The officer responded: ‘So it’s emotions. We all have them and sometimes they get the better of us.’
Hannah-Kim showed off faint teeth marks on her upper left bicep and told police: ‘I would like it to go on his record, on the record between me and him, so that he cannot ever do this to me again.’
When officers informed Kove he had committed a crime by biting his co-star, Kove responded that he ‘didn’t interpret the bite as a crime.’
Kim then exploded at Kove, saying: ‘Its not interpreted as a crime! He can take you away in handcuffs . You committed a crime, that’s why we’re here!
‘See that, those are your teeth you think that’s ok? It’s not okay.
Kove said: ‘I understand that I’m ashamed of my behavior. I’m ashamed that I did that and I would, I would like you to accept my apology and You know me long enough to know that my essence is not a vindictive violent essence at all.
‘If anything, we have just lots of fun together.
Kim said: ‘I came to you in friendship and I extended I had a friendship like, Hey mate, don’t do that. And what you gave me was rage.
‘That’s what I know. That’s why I have rage now because you gave it to me.
‘Do you understand that? Can you deny that when we approached you that it was completely calm and I was like, hey, you just can’t bite me.
‘I didn’t lose my s**t till you got rageful at me, which only gives me rage back.Kove said: ‘I, I didn’t intend your rage and I’m sorry you picked up on it. It wasn’t, I know what I did.
Kove is informed that Kim is not pressing charges but is warned to never repeat his actions.
Kove was banished from the convention, and recently broke his silence on the incident in a statement to Deadline.
Kove was filmed apologizing for getting ‘angry’ and blaming his actions on being playful with Hannah-Kim due to portraying a male sensei on screen
‘I deeply regret and apologize for my actions regarding the incident with Alicia [Hannah-Kim], a genuinely kind and wonderful person who didn’t deserve to be put in this position,’ Kove said in a statement from Jaffe & Company PR & Crisis Management.
‘I’ve always respected her and considered her a highly professional and talented co-worker on Cobra Kai,’ he added, before addressing the incident.
‘I was being playful in the moment but went too far and there is absolutely no excuse for my behavior,’ Kove continued.
‘I regret my actions for which I take full responsibility for what I did, and again I apologize to her and her husband. I’m committed to learning from this and it will never happen again,’ he concluded.
The report from the incident revealed that Kove did apologize to Hannah-Kim and her husband Roche, though now he’s doing so publicly.
Photos were also taken of Hannah-Kim’s arm, which showcased a, ‘very noticeable bite mark on her arm that was already turning blue and bruising.’
Kove was told to leave the convention, and the officer told him never to do something like that again.
Kim played Kim Da-Eun, a powerful South Korean sensei who is also the granddaughter of Kim Sun-Yung, the master who taught initially taught Kove’s character John Kreese in his youth.
!['I deeply regret and apologize for my actions regarding the incident with Alicia [Hannah-Kim], a genuinely kind and wonderful person who didn¿t deserve to be put in this position,' Kove said in a statement from Jaffe & Company PR & Crisis Management](https://publiko.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/1750977465_332_Karate-Kid-villain-Martin-Kove-had-weird-encounter-with-Bill.jpg)
‘I deeply regret and apologize for my actions regarding the incident with Alicia [Hannah-Kim], a genuinely kind and wonderful person who didn’t deserve to be put in this position,’ Kove said in a statement from Jaffe & Company PR & Crisis Management
The report from the incident revealed that Kove did apologize to Hannah-Kim and her husband Roche, though now he’s doing so publicly.
Kim played Kim Da-Eun, a powerful South Korean sensei who is also the granddaughter of Kim Sun-Yung, the master who taught initially taught Kove’s character John Kreese in his youth
He reprised that role for Cobra Kai, set 34 years after the events of the original Karate Kid film, which originally aired on YouTube Red before moving to Netflix.
The show enjoyed a strong run spanning six seasons, following Kreese’s old student Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and his rivalry with Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), which ended its run back in February.
Kove will next be seen in Killing Mary Sue with Sean Patrick Flannery, Dermot Mulroney and Jason Mewes, while Hannah-Kim is filming the South Korean TV series The North Star.
