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Chozen Toguchi is a fictional character in The Karate Kid franchise, who appears as the main antagonist of the motion picture The Karate Kid Part II (1986), and a supporting character (beginning with Season 3) of the series Cobra Kai (2021). He is portrayed by Yuji Okumoto, whose performance has received widespread acclaim.
In The Karate Kid Part II, the character is introduced as the nephew of Mr. Miyagi's best friend-turned-rival Sato, who comes into conflict with Daniel LaRusso throughout the film, eventually challenging him to a fight to the death, with Daniel overcoming him and ultimately sparing his life.
In Cobra Kai, an adult Chozen is shown to have repented for his past mistakes, and he makes amends with Daniel when the latter visits Okinawa during a trip to Japan, ultimately becoming a friend. Chozen then comes to the United States to help Daniel take down the aggressive karate dojo Cobra Kai, frequently misunderstanding American customs, and later fighting Cobra Kai sensei Terry Silver head-on. He eventually becomes a sensei of Miyagi-Do, where he helps the dojo fight in the global karate tournament, the Sekai Taikai.
As a child, Chozen would cheat during his Uncle Sato's Karate lessons. As a teenager, Chozen was quick-tempered, had difficulties with Kumiko, and was Daniel's rival ( The Karate Kid Part II). After his defeat, he was suicidal, but Sato and Kumiko helped him to recover and find purpose.
As an adult, Chozen became the Sensei for Miyagi-Do karate in Okinawa (which he inherited after Sato died). He is on friendly terms with Kumiko and has romantic feelings for her. He never married and does not have children.
In Okinawa, Mr. Miyagi and Daniel are greeted by Chozen, who takes them to meet Sato rather than to the village. Sato then threatens Mr. Miyagi, who dismisses it. Sato then allows them to go so that Mr. Miyagi can see his father, but after that he will return. Arriving at the village, Miyagi and Daniel are welcomed by Yukie and her niece Kumiko, and discover that Sato owns and runs the village. Mr. Miyagi also discovers that Yukie never married Sato because she still loves him.
After Miyagi's father dies, Sato gives him three days to mourn out of respect before their fight. Mr. Miyagi shows Daniel the secret to his family's karate - a handheld drum that illustrates the "drum technique", a block-and-defense karate move that Daniel begins to practice. Some time later, Daniel accidentally exposes corruption in Chozen's grocery business. Chozen accuses Daniel of insulting his honor and begins to harass him. After several encounters, their feud comes to a head when Chozen vandalizes the Miyagi family property and attacks Daniel. Daniel and Mr. Miyagi decide to leave and return to the U.S., but Sato threatens to destroy the village if Mr. Miyagi doesn't fight him, so a date is set. However, a typhoon cancels the fight, and Daniel and Mr. Miyagi rescue Sato, effectively ending the feud. When Sato sees a young girl trapped in the bell tower, he tells Chozen to help Daniel rescue her. As Chozen is too reluctant to do so due to his resentment towards Daniel, Sato helps Daniel rescue her instead and disowns Chozen who runs out into the storm.
The next day, Daniel and Kumiko approach Sato about hosting the upcoming O-bon festival in a ceremonial castle, to which he agrees and invites Daniel to join in the celebration. While Kumiko is performing a dance at the festival, Chozen ziplines into the presentation, takes Kumiko hostage, and demands to fight Daniel. Mr. Miyagi reminds Daniel that this isn't a tournament, this is for real and to the death. Daniel still agrees to go.
After an intense fight, Chozen overwhelms Daniel. Miyagi, Sato and the crowd respond by using handheld drums they brought to the celebration, inspiring Daniel. Seemingly confused, Chozen closes in for the kill, but Daniel is able to deflect Chozen's attacks and land counter-attacks using the drum technique. Daniel grabs the vanquished Chozen and threatens to end his life by saying, "Live or die, man?!" Chozen chooses death, but, remembering the way Miyagi handled Kreese earlier, Daniel honks Chozen's nose and drops him to the ground.
The next day Kumiko meets Daniel. While they talk in a bar, Chozen appears in the doorway.
Chozen takes Daniel to a mountain top, and Daniel recognizes it as the place where Karate was born through Miyagi Shimpo sensei. Daniel then tells the story that Mr. Miyagi told him, of Miyagi Shimpo sensei traveling to China and returning 10 years later with the "secret" of Miyagi-Do Karate. While Daniel is confident that Mr. Miyagi taught him everything, Chozen is skeptical and asks Daniel to follow him.
They arrive at the Miyagi-Do Dojo where Daniel finds original scrolls containing the family techniques. Chozen explains that Mr. Miyagi's father taught Sato, who then taught him. After Sato died, Chozen inherited all of the Miyagi family artifacts. However, Chozen suddenly takes the scroll from Daniel's hand, saying that Daniel is a foreigner who cannot take their secrets. When Daniel says that Mr. Miyagi treated him like a son, Chozen challenges him to a fight to see how much Daniel really knows. Daniel is then surprised to find himself beaten when Chozen uses unknown techniques, and Chozen tells him that Mr. Miyagi did not teach him everything.
Chozen then tells Daniel the real story behind Miyagi-Do Karate. Centuries ago, the Miyagi ancestors were at war with Japanese invaders, so they designed their own techniques designed to kill their enemies. Chozen suspects that Mr. Miyagi thought that Daniel would not be able to learn the more deadlier aspects that seemed to defy Mr. Miyagi's "self-defense" approach.
As they continue to fight, Chozen uses techniques that disable Daniel's arms and legs, leaving Daniel at his mercy. He tells Daniel that he has waited a long time for getting payback on Daniel, but instead comically honks his nose (a reference to when Daniel honked Chozen's in The Karate Kid Part II). Chozen then drops all pretense of anger and Daniel realizes that it was all a facade, as Chozen adopts a friendlier demeanor. He then explains to Daniel that the move he used was a pressure point technique and agrees to teach him these techniques. He tells Daniel: "If an enemy insists on war, then you take away their ability to wage it".
As they say goodbye, Daniel is utterly amazed at his new perspective of Miyagi-Do Karate, and says he understands why Mr. Miyagi never taught it to him. Chozen praises Mr. Miyagi, says he hopes he will be like him, and becomes overcome with guilt when he recalls his actions and how he treated Daniel three decades ago. He says that after their fight, he was suicidal, only rescued by the encouragement of Sato to prove himself, and that is what he has been doing ever since, becoming a sensei in Okinawa and passing on the teaching of Miyagi Do to his students. Daniel then says that he forgives him for the events of the past, and Chozen is grateful for it. He then offers Daniel the scroll, telling him "You keep for your collection" (a callback to when he said the same thing to Kumiko, though in a lascivious context, during Karate Kid II).
At the end of Season 3, Daniel saves his own life by using these techniques against a surprise and murderous attack from Kreese.
Daniel helps him prepare for the dinner, but is nervous. He says that Silver is a man without honor. Chozen understands and says that when he was young, Sato tried to teach him about honor, but at the time he wasn't ready as he was a coward who had no honor himself.
During dinner, Silver confirms Chozen's suspicion that his karate master was Kim Sun-Yung. Chozen tells him that he was raised by his uncle as his father died when he was young, implied to have been by suicide. Silver slowly seduces Chozen into letting his guard down, inadvertently blowing his cover when Silver suggests a toast; Chozen says "Karii", the Okinawan term for cheers instead of "Kanpai", the Japanese word for cheers.
The next day in the dojo, Silver reveals that he knows Chozen's true identity due to this mistake, and has the remaining senseis attack him. Chozen easily defeats all of them within minutes. He then turns to Silver and threatens him to leave Miyagi-Do and the LaRusso family alone or he will fight back.
The next day at Miyagi-Do, Daniel and Chozen try to figure out what to do. Since Silver said he has many people to call, Chozen suggests that they contact these people first. Daniel immediately thinks of Mike Barnes. They then go to Mike's house where Daniel tells Chozen about his past with Mike Barnes. They follow him to his place of work, a furniture store in Agoura Hills and Chozen waits in the car while Daniel goes to investigate inside.
Unbeknownst to Chozen, Barnes had turned his life around, is married, and turns out to be the owner of the store. He also took responsibility for what happened in 1985 and apologized to Daniel. Worried when Daniel doesn't appear, Chozen goes inside and sees what he thinks is a fight, when in reality Mike and Daniel are joking about a re-match. Chozen then attacks Barnes and his workers, until Daniel finally stops the fight and apologizes to Mike. Chozen tells Mike that the couch that they are sitting on is very comfortable and Mike offers it for $2000 even though the price is $1200 due to Chozen attacking him and his staff.
Much to his shock, Kumiko is revealed to have already found a boyfriend, causing Chozen to go on a downward spiral and drown his sorrow in alcohol. He eventually reunites with his co-senseis and their students in Barcelona and manages to recover from his heartbreak in order to help the students regain focus in the competition. He secretly has one-night stand with Kim Da-Eun despite their dojos being rivals and the two of them join Kreese and Daniel as they discover Terry Silver had been freed from prison and become the business partner of Sensei Wolf and his formidable dojo, the Iron Dragons, to get his vengeance on Daniel, Johnny and Miyagi-Do for his downfall. Though Miyagi-Do eventually manages to take Cobra Kai out of the competition thanks to the students' full focus, mutual trust and impressive teamwork, Kreese, Kim Da-Eun and their students receive another chance when Russian dojo Tiger Strike is eliminated for the use of performance-enhancement drugs.
During the male captains match between Robby and Iron Dragon Axel Kovacevic, Senseis Ivanov and Oksana lead their Tiger Strike students back into the competition, knock out representative Gunther and his fellow chiefs and ignite an all-out war between dojos. Chozen joins forces with Kim Da-Eun to take down the Tiger Strike senseis and the madness comes to an end when Cobra Kai top student Kwon Jae-Sung fatally stabs himself by accident with Kreese's eunjangdo dagger.
Weeks later, at Miyagi-Do, Chozen receives a letter from Kumiko who tells him that she loves him as a friend only and she's in love with someone else, leaving Chozen heartbroken. To cheer him up, Daniel and Amanda take him out for wine tasting and introduce him to their friend, Winnie Taylor. Winnie ensures Chozen there is somebody special out there for him, which Chozen confesses there is. He witnesses the untimely marriage of Johnny and Carmen, as well as the birth of their daughter, Laura.
In the series finale, he and former rival-turned-friend, Kim Da-Eun, who is now reformed, become a couple.
Okumoto received a call in September 2019 asking if he was interested in joining Cobra Kai. While he had hoped that Chozen would be written into the narrative, he was concerned with "how Chozen would be portrayed". He wanted to make certain that "the character is well-written, well-developed…that they paid deference to the character and his development. So they sent me the script and initially I thought it needed a little work. But I gave a little bit of input and the writers and also the producers, they really did a great job in capturing the essence of Chozen and how he would probably be after 30-odd years". Okumoto was pleased by the investment of the writers in his perspective on the character, noting that "they actually took the notes and incorporated into developing the character. And they really had a great grasp on the direction, which made my job lot easier". He also thinks that "Chozen has gone through a lot of soul searching after losing his fight with Daniel. I think that he saw the light, and — this is just my take — I think through the dedication that he put into getting back into martial arts for the right reasons, I think he started to understand what the true meaning of martial arts is, and what the true meaning of honor is". Okumoto also enjoyed working with Ralph Macchio again, saying that "it's like reuniting with an old friend… I can't say enough about how fortunate I was to be brought onto the show and to be reunited with him". He further stated that "it felt like we're back on the set of Karate Kid II. Working with Ralph especially, he's just so professional. No ego, you conversate sic and have a good time, and reminisce about a lot of this stuff. And we talked about, you know, our kids, family stuff. And so it was really a wonderful experience". Regarding Chozen, Okumoto says that he "wanted him to evolve as a character… and didn't want him just to be there as a person to push the story along. I wanted him to go through a journey, to go through a soul-searching".
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