King breaks nose, shirtless, of rugby player (6)
I believe the answer is:
hooker
'rugby player' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'king breaks nose shirtless' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'king' could be 'er' (abbreviation for Edward Rex, various English kings) and 'er' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'hook' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hooker that I've seen before include "Old professional" , "John Lee --, blues singer" , "Fishing boat" , "Rugby centre forward in the ..." , "Rugby player - traditional single-masted Irish working boat" .)