Fossil segments of Hemimachairodus were unearthed in Pleistocene dig sites in Java in Indonesia alongside other predators such as Panthera tigris, Homotherium latidens, and Megacyon merriami, and it most likely competed with these species for prey.

The species was originally described in 1934 by German palaeontologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald under the name Epimachairodus zwierzyckii.

[5] Koenigswald's 1974 diagnosis of Hemimachairodus noted the complete reduction of the third premolar, and serrations on the upper canine teeth being limited to the inner edge.

[4] The holotype of Hemimachairodus zwierzyckii is a partial left mandibular ramus, retaining the first incisor, the canine, and the fourth premolar, after which it is broken.

And from the Djetis Beds Modjokerto in eastern Java, a fragment of a mandible retaining a premolar and the front half of a molar.