Nicholas Tse punched a hole in a van, but he was not his manager’s worst headache

Nicholas Tse’s long-time manager Mani Fok recounted some rebellious artistes she has managed over the years. — Pictures from Instagram/Mani Fok, and Nicholas Tse

First Published: Tuesday, 06 Oct 2026 2:04 PM MYT

HONG KONG, Oct 6 — Nicholas Tse might have upheld his bad-boy image in his younger days, but his longtime manager Mani Fok said he is not the most troublesome artiste she has managed.

The 54-year-old, who is also a producer and Emperor Entertainment Group’s chief executive officer, hosted Hong Kong singers Joey Yung, Mike Tsang, Angela Hui as well as Kenny Kwan – all signed under the group – in the first episode of her Bilibili talk show Manifest, released on Sept 25.

They started the episode with a game of truth-or-dare, where Mani was asked to talk about the most troublesome artiste she has managed.

Joey, 46, said it was Nicholas, with Mani responding: “The person you mentioned is one of them, but there is always a ‘higher mountain’.”

Turning to Kenny, she told him the person in question is his former best friend. The 45-year-old wondered for a moment before Mani revealed it was his former partner from the Cantopop duo Boy’z.

While the latter was not named, it was understood to be Steven Cheung.

Mani explained: “He was really troublesome and would be the death of me. I had to force him to go to school.

“I had to use the company driver (to send him to school) and Kenny had to pretend to be his cousin. After sending him to the front gate, he would leave through the back gate.”

Mani directed the question to Joey, asking if she felt that Nicholas was a troublesome person.

Joey recounted an incident: “You mentioned before that he didn’t want to do something you wanted him to and you stopped talking to him in the end because he punched a hole in the van.”

Mani added: “I felt that if he could cause a dent in the van, my face would have dented in too if he punched me, so I definitely had to stop.”

She shared that Nicholas, now 46, definitely had a rebellious streak in him when he was younger, as he would deliberately do something opposite if he was told to do things a certain way.