Great, maybe, but he took punishment (5)
I believe the answer is:
herod
'great maybe but he took punishment' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'he took punishment' is the wordplay.
'took' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'punishment' becomes 'rod' (stick used for corporal punishment).
'he'+'rod'='HEROD'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for herod that I've seen before include "child murderer" , "New Testament king" , "Biblical king of Judaea" , "Massacre-of-Innocents king" , "Infanticidal king" .)