“Cobra Kai”'s Alicia Hannah-Kim on Chozen and Sensei Kim's hookup: 'We made out a lot'

Actress Alicia Hannah-Kim also confirms that yes, Kim Da-Eun's ponytail really, really hurts.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Cobra Kai season 6 part 2.

Kim Da-Eun is always ready — and very able — to kick butt on Cobra Kai, but Alicia Hannah-Kim says all that karate choreography is not the most challenging part of playing the formidable sensei. That honor goes to... her character's extremely tight ponytail.

"That is actually the toughest part of the job physically, this constant pulling and the weight of the hair extension," Hannah-Kim tells Entertainment Weekly. Fortunately for the actress, Kim Da-Eun gets to let her hair down — figuratively and literally — in the newest episodes of Netflix's hit karate comedy. Cobra Kai's season 6, part 2 includes a surprising detour into romance for Sensei Kim, who finds herself thrown together with Miyagi-Do master Chozen (Yuji Okumoto) during a night out in Barcelona.

"It was so unexpected," says Hannah-Kim. "I just didn't think that was in the cards for her at all." The actress called EW from a hotel in Korea to share her thoughts on Sensei Kim and Chozen's new relationship (situationship?), where her partnership with Kreese (Martin Kove) stands now, and whether Kwon's death will alter her "win at all costs" attitude.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was was your reaction when you first read the script for "Snakes on a Plane," featuring Chozen and Kim Da-Eun's surprise hookup?

ALICIA HANNAH-KIM: I was really looking forward to reading that script. On my first day of filming season 6, I had been told the direction they were going to take my character in. But I just had not expected that wild plot twist in her relationship with Chozen. I was really, really looking forward to seeing how it would unfold. And then of course, it's something to digest throughout the season and then you realize, "It's happening! It's happening! It's me and Chozen, and we're getting it on!" I loved it. I think they did such an amazing job. It's got this kind of wild, Hangover vibe. Everyone's in Barcelona, and everything's just going wild there. All bets are off.

Related: Cobra Kai creators on that shocking death at Sekai Taikai and what's next

Let's talk about the moment when they meet up at the bar at the end of the night. They start talking, and then they start fighting... and then they start kissing. What do you think was going through Kim Da-Eun's mind as that conversation progressed to a clinch?

[Laughs] She's on vacation, she's in a different mindset. They sort of bump into each other a bunch of times at night, and I think she starts to see him in a different light. He's out there on his own looking for the kids; she's out there on her own. It's kind of like a "great minds think alike" thing where you realize, "Oh, maybe I have something in common with this person."

They're both senseis, they've just been on opposing sides. Then on that night, they're going on this parallel journey together. When they end up in this bar in Barcelona and they're doing the kind of stiff, awkward small talk — the two characters are actually quite alike, quite internal and in their own way. For myself as an actor, I think she sort of started to go down that slope. As she kept running into him, she kept trying to keep that stiff upper lip — but when you're at the bar and you're doing small talk and you're kind of flirting, "I bet I could take you on." You just knew exactly where it was going.

Of course, their foreplay was fighting. Tell me about rehearsing that scene.

I loved learning that fight with Yuji, because it's like a waltz. There's a lot of circular movement there. Sensei Kim's flirting is fighting. That's how she expresses herself. She's a weird one. [Laughs] I loved learning the fight with Yuji. It was my first time fighting with him, so it had all that inherent newness to it as well. Then on the day when we were doing it, it wasn't the fight that was making me nervous, it was the kissing. The fighting, we had rehearsed and we had gotten it down pat, but the actual make-out part of it, we didn't actually discuss it. I tried to bring it up to him, and Yuji looked at me in such a cool way and he was like, "We'll see how it pans out." And I was like, "Oh, yeah, cool. Okay." I'm just packing in the gum and hoping for the best.

But I tell you what, that first moment where it all came out was so thrilling. All the extras around us obviously did not know that that was going to happen, and so there was a lot of jaw-dropping around us, which I think is in the final take.

Up until now, Sensei Kim has been such an internal, composed character. What was it like for you pivoting to this onscreen kiss and this romantic arc?

It was so unexpected. I just didn't think that was in the cards for her at all. In the Cobra Kai universe, there's a lot of comedy and there's a lot of redemption, and I just wasn't sure whether I would be plugged into any of that. I was at peace with having a different vibe — and then suddenly when I get to play the classic Cobra Kai comedy and the romance of it, it was just so exciting to me.

It's really fun and silly to get to do that with a fellow actor. I got so carried away with it. Oh man, we made out a lot. A lot. [Laughs] I was really out of breath. I think we're hitting an hour mark and Yuji and I just looked totally disheveled. Each take got progressively funnier. Jen Celotta, our director, wanted us to fall out of frame kissing. I think we smacked into a pole one time. Yuji tried to climb me. I mean, it just got funnier and funnier.

I love that moment from the morning after when Kim Da-Eun and Chozen are at the cafe, and she empties a bunch of sand out of her sleeve. How did you get through that without laughing?

I think that was Jen Celotta, our amazing director's idea. We kept having to hold for sand. We had to shove more sand up my sleeve, and then we had to sort of mat it into my hair so that I could shake it out a bit. It was really hilarious. I knew I nailed it when Jen was laughing behind the monitor. It's a really cute moment for someone as austere as Sensei Kim. You just never thought in season 5 when you first meet her, that in season 6 she'd be sitting there the morning after sort of awkwardly trying to get her bearings together and doing a kind of walk of shame. I did not know that was going to happen for her.

Speaking of Kim Da-Eun's hair, was it nice to have your hair down in those scenes? Because that ponytail she always wears looks like it hurts.

Oh, it does. It was such a relief. I cannot tell you. I think it was out for a couple of days. We had a couple more scenes to shoot with it, and I was just thrilled. It was like having a weight off my back because [the ponytail] does pull for over 12 hours [when we're shooting]. That is actually the toughest part of the job physically, this constant pulling and the weight of the hair extension. So I felt much more free.

It was strange to go to work and not have to sit for hours in hair. I'm like, "Oh, this is what it's like to be a man. You just come to work, have breakfast, and then roll onto set with absolutely no problems." I just really envy the low-maintenance hair guys on the show.

Given the return of Terry Silver and Kwon's death at the Sekai Taikai, do you think Sensei Kim is regretting her decision to team up with Sensei Kreese for the tournament?

I think first and foremost, she's a strategist and she's weighing all of her options all the time. Kim and Kreese's relationship is so complicated. She is grateful to him for this past friendship, where he really protected her and was a mentor figure to her and was quite instrumental in her beginning to be trained by her grandfather.

As an adult, she's probably really smarting from being defeated [after] teaming up with Terry Silver [last season]. And so when she swings back around and teams up with Kreese, I think she does do it with more knowledge and experience that it might not be everything that she hopes for. What's disturbing for Kim is when there's a loss of control. Kreese doesn't have that same fear, and so she does start to feel that instability. Of course, it goes haywire in episode 10, and that's when the consequences really hit the fan.

Related: Cobra Kai creators on [SPOILER'S] return and that 'karate Braveheart' brawl

Before Kwon dies, Tory (Peyton List) asks Sensei Kim if "winning over everything" was really worth the sacrifices she made in her life. What can you tease about how Kim Da-Eun will think about this question moving forward?

I love that theme because Tory and Kim Da-Eun's relationship over the seasons has been just so fraught — I would say almost competitive, even. She really sees so much of herself in her. They're the "bad girls" of Cobra Kai, and sometimes we tend to make bad choices when we feel threatened or we're trying to cover a vulnerability. I love that scene because of the way Peyton delivered it as well, because if it [the question] had been a challenge or a fight, we wouldn't have had that moment of reflection from Sensei Kim. But when Peyton as Tory asked that question, it really does come from such an innocent and sensitive and truthful place. I think that's what breaks through to Sensei Kim and moves her.

I do think it's something that she doesn't want to acknowledge but has felt way, way deep down in herself — and it is probably the first time that anybody's really asked her that question of a life outside of karate wars. Moving forward, there are going to be a lot of repercussions from Kwon's death, and we're going to see the consequences of Kreese's actions, and we're going to see how Sensei Kim deals with that. I also think that her new dynamic with Chosen has unbroken something in her as well — so there are a lot of new elements here that are going to change how she sees the world.

For all the Chozen/Kim Da-Eun shippers...

We're called "Kimzen" now! [Laughs]

Love that! So, without spoiling anything, can you tease whether we'll get more "Kimzen" in the final five episodes?

I think Kimzen shippers are going to have to wait and see. Their dynamic is really continuous and fun. If they're not fighting, maybe they'll be kissing — and if they're not kissing, maybe they'll be fighting. You never know with Kimzen.

Cobra Kai season 6 parts 1 and 2 are streaming now on Netflix.

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