Jay Leno Says He Injured Face in Nasty Fall, Wears Eye Patch

Jay Leno's such a badass, he did a comedy gig with an eye patch, a black eye, a bandaged wrist and a swollen face ... after taking a nasty fall near his hotel.

We got Jay arriving to the Comedy for Koby event in Beverly Hills on Monday night and our photog asked him the obvious ... what the hell happened to his face?!?

Jay tell us he was staying at a hotel on a hill and wanted to go to a restaurant at the bottom of the slope ... and instead of taking a winding path down, he tried to take a shortcut ... and it ended with him tumbling down the hill.

As you can see, the left side of Jay's face is super swollen and bruised ... and he's got an eye patch and a wrist wrap ... but he says the incident didn't stop him from performing over the weekend at the Yaamava' Casino in Southern California.

Jay says there were a couple thousand people waiting for him to take the stage and he just couldn't let them down ... waiting until after his gig to go to a hospital.

The comedy legend has taken a beating in recent years ... shattering bones in a motorcycle crash and suffering third-degree burns in a car fire in his famous garage.

Jay's old-school Hollywood though ... and the show must go on!!!