diff --git a/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/kubernetes_pod.py b/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/kubernetes_pod.py
index 4eb6282162cc76..19bbd597f1dfac 100644
--- a/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/kubernetes_pod.py
+++ b/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/kubernetes_pod.py
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@
     convert_volume,
     convert_volume_mount,
 )
+from airflow.providers.cncf.kubernetes.hooks.kubernetes import KubernetesHook
 from airflow.providers.cncf.kubernetes.utils import xcom_sidecar  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
 from airflow.providers.cncf.kubernetes.utils.pod_manager import (
     PodLaunchFailedException,
@@ -83,6 +84,8 @@ class KubernetesPodOperator(BaseOperator):
         :class:`~airflow.providers.google.cloud.operators.kubernetes_engine.GKEStartPodOperator`, which
         simplifies the authorization process.
 
+    :param kubernetes_conn_id: The :ref:`kubernetes connection id <howto/connection:kubernetes>`
+        for the Kubernetes cluster.
     :param namespace: the namespace to run within kubernetes.
     :param image: Docker image you wish to launch. Defaults to hub.docker.com,
         but fully qualified URLS will point to custom repositories. (templated)
@@ -158,6 +161,7 @@ class KubernetesPodOperator(BaseOperator):
     def __init__(
         self,
         *,
+        kubernetes_conn_id: Optional[str] = None,  # 'kubernetes_default',
         namespace: Optional[str] = None,
         image: Optional[str] = None,
         name: Optional[str] = None,
@@ -206,6 +210,7 @@ def __init__(
             raise AirflowException("'xcom_push' was deprecated, use 'do_xcom_push' instead")
         super().__init__(resources=None, **kwargs)
 
+        self.kubernetes_conn_id = kubernetes_conn_id
         self.do_xcom_push = do_xcom_push
         self.image = image
         self.namespace = namespace
@@ -321,7 +326,10 @@ def pod_manager(self) -> PodManager:
 
     @cached_property
     def client(self) -> CoreV1Api:
-        # todo: use airflow Connection / hook to authenticate to the cluster
+        if self.kubernetes_conn_id:
+            hook = KubernetesHook(conn_id=self.kubernetes_conn_id)
+            return hook.core_v1_client
+
         kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = dict(
             cluster_context=self.cluster_context,
             config_file=self.config_file,