This inquiry tries to examine situations of intercultural communication in which facework is employed as a method to redress moments of possible face loss. The data are drawn from communication among Korean, Malaysian, and Japanese students who were enrolled in an online synchronous class. On the basis of these data, three distinct types of facework were distinguished: self-mocking humour, group embarrassment, and efforts to realize group cohesion. Tensions among the intercultural group, which could have induced a possible break in face maintenance, appeared. These tensions resulted from disparities within the cultural groups regarding recognition of face, cultural assumptions, and language use. When participants did not find a fair resolution of tension in words, nonverbal face-saving strategies acted to resolve conflict and alleviate loss of face by re-contextualising the interaction. Overall, this inquiry points out the intricacies of intercultural communication in relation to face maintenance and presents insights for future study into L2 speakers’ use of facework in intercultural communication.