It's evening in Cape Town, South Africa, as Andrew Koji peers into his video chat screen after a long day of work on the set of his HBO Max action drama series "Warrior." Upbeat nevertheless, the British actor catches a glimpse of himself, nearly does a double take and laughs. "I've got a scar on my head. Can you see that?"
The fresh gash above his eye appears to be a stray bit of special effects makeup, the kind of blow Koji, 34, has doled out with ferocity for two seasons on "Warrior" as the soul-searching fighter Ah Sahm, who steps off the boat in 1870s San Francisco into a tinderbox of swirling tensions among the Chinese Tongs, Irish mobsters, crooked police and even shiftier politicians. Only it's not just real, it's self-inflicted.
While stealing moments to train for an upcoming nunchaku scene — the signature weapon of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, whose writings inspired the project — Koji accidentally smacked himself in the head, he admits. Still, he's happy with the progress. "It's going OK," he says with a grin, "but it still needs some work."
