It was written and produced by Timberlake, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, with additional writing from James Fauntleroy and a sample of Barry White's "Somebody's Gonna off the Man".

The seven-minute official accompanying music video was released in October 2013, and stars Elvis Presley's granddaughter Riley Keough as Timberlake's love interest.

"TKO" was written and produced by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Jerome "J-Roc" Harmon, with James Fauntleroy also serving as co-writer of the track.

The track is a Timberlake/Timbaland joint, with signature bleepy production and dark undertones, a far cry from the album's lead single, upbeat throwback jam 'Take Back the Night'.

It features new rap verses from J. Cole, ASAP Rocky and Pusha T.[14] "TKO" received mixed reviews from music critics.

In a favorable review of the song for PopCrush, Amy Sciarretto wrote that "TKO" "would have been quite comfortable nestled in the track listing of Justified or FutureSex/LoveSounds," however, Timberlake isn't recycling old music material, but giving it a modernized update.

[7] According to James Shotwell of Under the Gun Review, the song is "not what you would call a conventional single choice," but an infectious Timbaland-built production: "There is something about how the heavy bass and snare blends with JT’s signature voice that taps into the soul of every pop music fan when Timbaland is in the mix that simply cannot be denied."

"[15] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the track "another underwhelming single" and "a retread of Timberlake's past work with longtime collaborator Timbaland."

[17] Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal panned Timbaland's vocal contributions, joking that he performed "the role of embarrassing uncle [...] starting the track off with unfortunately appropriate (and gross) baby talk"/[18] In its first week of release, the single sold 79,000 downloads in the US, debuting at number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Carl Williot of Idolator wrote that Timberlake "dropped another epic visual from 'The 20/20 Experience' with 'TKO,' and while the subject matter couldn’t be further from that of his instant classic 'Mirrors' video, this one is just as sprawling and beautifully shot.

"[29] Billboard Magazine wrote that the video is "a knock-down, drag-out good time, with the singer getting into a bit of a mess with co-star Riley Keough in a slickly produced and thematic seven-minute clip.