Chance I had to cut stress (8)
I believe the answer is:
accident
'chance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'i had to cut stress' is the wordplay.
'i had' becomes 'i'd' (contraction).
'to cut' indicates putting letters inside (some letters cut their way into a word).
'stress' becomes 'accent' (accent can mean to emphasise or stress).
'id' put within 'accent' is 'ACCIDENT'.
(Other definitions for accident that I've seen before include "Collision" , "Dance tic leading to mishap" , "tragedy?" , "Unexpected and unplanned event" , "Prang" .)