literally take a kick in the stomach from someone or something describing quite intense pain

It just means “kicked in the stomach”, meaning their stomach hurt.

"I felt like I had been kicked in the gut," usually means "I was hurt emotionally, not physically." It implies a sudden and severe emotional pain, as bad as being kicked in the stomach. It is a figure of speech and not literal.

Kicked in the gut is just an expression to say how awful they feel, because getting physically kicked in the gut is a terrible feeling so that's what they're trying to express.

It is an expression..."gut" is your insides (abdominal area) so you have a pain as uf someonw had kicked you in the gut