Take place of one chap, cutting up rough initially (5)
I believe the answer is:
occur
'take place' is the definition.
(I know that take place can be written as occur)
'one chap cutting up rough initially' is the wordplay.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'one chap cutting up rough' is 'OCCUR'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for occur that I've seen before include "Go on" , "exist" , "Spring to mind" , "Turn up" , "crop up" .)