[3] Kove worked as a substitute math teacher at the Ward Melville High School before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in acting.

From 1982 to 1988, Kove appeared in the main cast of Cagney & Lacey as New York City Detective Victor Isbecki, a supporting role he reprised in subsequent television movies for the series.

[8][9] In 2018, Kove again returned to the character of Kreese for the YouTube Premium web series Cobra Kai, a continuation of The Karate Kid franchise set 34 years after the original film.

In 2019, Kove parodied his Karate Kid character in a QuickBooks commercial, in which a kinder, gentler Kreese runs a "Koala Kai" dojo of preteen students who are encouraged to "support the leg" and to show "more mercy.

[14] One of the twins, Jesse, portrayed the young man who bullies the younger version of his father’s character, John Kreese, in flashbacks for seasons 3 and 4 of Cobra Kai.