В моем понимании перевод badass "блуждает" где-то между "реальным пацаном", "крутым чуваком" и "настоящим мужиком".
It seems to me that all of those would work for a male "badass" like John McClane from Die Hard, but they wouldn't be suitable for Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day or Mystique from X-Men, to name two more Hollywood examples of "badass" women.

(Not all female heroes are "badass" -- I wouldn't put Jodie Foster's "Clarice Starling" from Silence of the Lambs in the "badass" category, even though I think Foster-as-Starling is in the Top 10 Greatest Movie Heroines of the past several decades. However, Clarice only used her gun once, and generally she followed the FBI's rules. But Sarah Connor [esp. as the character was developed in T2] is without doubt a badass heroine, and Mystique is a badass villainess -- their roles are more physically violent, and they break the rules a lot, which adds to their "badass" rating!)

P.S. Also, Clarice Starling had no крылатые выражения like "Get away from her, you bitch" or "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" or "I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum" or "I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice chianti," etc. Having a quotable catchphrase can definitely add to your badass score...