Clown might start to break wild animal? What a nut! (4,2,3)
I believe the answer is:
coco de mer
'a nut' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'clown might start to break wild animal?' is the wordplay.
'clown' becomes 'coco' (Nicolai Poliakoff aka Coco the Clown).
'start to' indicates taking the first letters.
'break' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters break into the word).
'wild animal?' becomes 'deer' (I've seen this before).
The first letter of 'might' is 'm'.
'm' inserted into 'deer' is 'demer'.
'coco'+'demer'='COCO DE MER'
'what' is the link.
(Another definition for coco de mer that I've seen is " nut".)