The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 5 plus 2 plus 4 letter word THE AKOND OF SWAT
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
H
E
A
K
O
N
D
O
F
S
W
A
T
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.