Wonderful king embraced by chum gets to soften up (8)
I believe the answer is:
macerate
'to soften up' is the definition.
'wonderful king embraced by chum' is the wordplay.
'wonderful' becomes 'ace'.
'king' becomes 'r' (r is abbreviation for rex).
'embraced by' is an insertion indicator.
'chum' becomes 'mate' (I've seen this before).
'ace'+'r'='acer'
'acer' inserted within 'mate' is 'MACERATE'.
'gets' is the link.
(Other definitions for macerate that I've seen before include "Steep in liquid like cream tea" , "Soak" , "Cream tea (anag) -- soften by steeping in liquid" , "Soften food by soaking" .)