When actors take on physically demanding roles in movies and TV shows, it often requires intense training. This might involve hand-to-hand combat, gun use, a specific sport, and martial arts. When it comes to Cobra Kai, almost everyone in the cast has had to show off martial arts skills as they engage in fight scenes both in the dojo and outside of it. But fans are curious: did any of the actors who play the main characters have prior training, or did they all have to fast-track learning the basics of karate to make it believable?

Of course, Ralph Macchio and William Zabka received some training 30+ years ago for The Karate Kid. But fans are curious if either of them studied in a martial art prior to snagging those roles. The answer might be surprising across the board. While a few of the cast members have legitimate martial arts training, they might not be the actors who seem most likely to have possessed skills beforehand.

Cobra Kai’s Returning Cast Is Well Trained

As noted, the two main adult actors, Macchio and Zabka, had training before Cobra Kai when they were in The Karate Kid. Macchio got additional training when he reprised his role as Daniel LaRusso for The Karate Kid: Part II.

Interestingly, while Zabka didn’t have previous training before snagging the role as villain Johnny Lawrence, after that movie in 1984, he continued studying. In fact, Zabka made it all the way to earning a second-degree green belt, according to The Wrap. He claims to continue to do some mild training and sparring to this day, beyond what he features on the show.

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Martin Kove
Martin Kove, who plays John Kreese, is one of several of the older cast members who has prior training. According to Looper, Kove has a black belt in Okinawa-te karate. He told Kung-Fu Kingdom that he also studied Shihan Tak Kubota in the ‘80s while making a movie, and studied with Pat Johnson, the stunt coordinator on The Karate Kid for three hours a day, alongside Macchio, Zabka, and Pat Morita, who played Mr. Miyagi.

Sean Kanan
Sean Kanan, who reprised his role of Mike Barnes from The Karate Kid III in Seasons 5 and 6 of Cobra Kai, was originally cast in that movie because he already had karate experience. He has studied in both Shito-Ryu and Shotokan karate, according to Black Belt Magazine.

Which Returning Cast Members Have the Most Extensive Training?

Which adult actor from the original movies has the most martial arts experience overall? There are three actors from Cobra Kai who studied more extensively than anyone else, both before and after their roles in one or more of The Karate Kid movies as well as Cobra Kai.

Yuji Okumoto
Yuji Okumoto (Chozen Toguchi), who reprised his role from The Karate Kid II, studied the Chito-Ryu and Shotokan styles of karate when he was a child, starting at about the age of 13, according to the Ikigai Way martial arts blog. “I was not very big as a kid,” he said, “so I decided that in order to defend myself, I had to study some sort of self-defense.”

After taking some time off during his senior year of high school, he picked back up with martial arts, studying Shotokan and Judo in college. He studied with the famous sensei Hayward Nishioka, a two-time Black Belt Hall of Fame member and 10th-degree black belt in judo, as his instructor. He continued to study Kajukembo followed by Yau Kung Moon, a southern style of Kung fu. Bottom line: he is one of the few actors who actually knows how to fight and has studied various martial arts forms.

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Thomas Ian Griffith
Thomas Ian Griffith, who played Cobra Kai’s season five villain Terry Silver, is the main cast member with the most martial artists experience, which you might find unexpected. He started studying karate in high school and has continued to practice the art and sport every day since, according to The Wrap. This equates to more than 40 years of training. Through this time, he has acquired black belts in taekwondo and Kenpo karate.

Ron Thomas
One minor character is worth mentioning here as well: Ron Thomas. He only appeared in a few episodes of Cobra Kai, reprising his role as Bobby Brown from The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid Part II. Fans will recall that, in The Karate Kid, he delivered the illegal kick to LaRusso’s knee, at Kreese’s urging, which almost put the young fighter out of commission. Thomas is a real-life sensei, according to Heavy, who has studied martial arts for much of his adult life. He reportedly studied a form of jujitsu called Kodenkan and has a sixth-degree black belt. He also previously trained the U.S. Sport Ju-Jitsu Team, teaching students who have gone on to become national and world champions.

The Younger Cast Members Have Less Experience

When it comes down to the younger, new cast members, most of them had no prior training. But a few dabbled in martial arts before and after. Arguably the young actors with the most martial arts experience are Jacob Bertrand (Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz) and Tanner Buchanan (Robby Keene).

Jacob Bertrand
Bertrand started training in karate when he was just eight years old and advanced all the way to purple belt. However, he didn’t continue his training beyond that, according to The Wrap. Nonetheless, that experience gave him a baseline on which to work. That’s combined with other sports and training he continued to participate in, including grappling and skateboarding.

Tanner Buchanan
Buchanan, meanwhile, studied taekwondo as a child, notes The Wrap, and claims to have been a few belts away from black before he stopped to focus on other interests. However, he notes that prior to snagging the role of Robby on Cobra Kai, he had been training in Muay Thai for eight months while filming the series Designated Survivor.

Gianne DeCenzo
Gianni DeCenzo, who plays the nerdy Demetri Alexopoulos, didn’t have much training prior to joining the cast. But like the others, he began to train more once he got the role. He told Showbiz Cheatsheet that he and his father began to take classes in Krav Maga, the Israeli fighting technique. While it’s different from traditional karate, Krav Maga includes kicks and punches as well, providing a good basis.

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Peyton List
Peyton List didn’t have any training prior to her role as Tory, which made it challenging since she joined the cast later. The others had already been training for some time. She told Nicki Swift that she continued to train outside the show to help improve her performance, including with a private trainer and taking kickboxing classes. List told PopSugar that she thinks it’s “so important to learn self-defense” and that she “feels so much more confident since seeking out martial arts. If I ever have a kid,” she adds, “I’ll put them into martial arts.”

Mary Mouser
Mary Mouser (Samantha LaRusso) didn’t have any prior training either, but she started to study Muay Thai even before official Cobra Kai training started prior to the first season, according to Shape.

Xolo Maridueña
Xolo Maridueña (Miguel Diaz) says he studied karate for about a year as a child, according to Sportskeeda. But he claims to have forgotten pretty much everything he learned by the time he secured this role. Ironically, Maridueña has the least amount of training despite his character becoming one of the dojo’s best fighters.

Cobra Kai Continues With Epic Fight Scenes

With the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai ending with the beginning of the Takai Sekai Tournament in Barcelona, fans can expect plenty more karate moves through the second batch of episodes, which will be released in November 2024. This means the actors will likely continue their training to provide the most convincing performances.

Whether they already knew karate or another martial art or went in completely blind, the performances of the entire cast are a testament to how much work each actor puts into the characters and learning as much as they can to add to the authenticity of the show.

Nonetheless, knowing who has studied before, who has the most extensive experience, and who didn’t have any at all may provide new perspective, and respect, while watching all those exciting fight scenes.

Stream Cobra Kai on Netflix.