Let me say first, I am a noob to 3D but an engineer.

But I have played a lot with this on my E3D-V6.

At first I had clicking from the extruder and this was because the tension bolts were too loose. Maybe yours are too tight so the filament is being deformed? The extruder should neither bend nor kink just serve. It is kinking at extruder level, or in the hot end?

Only other thing I can think off is temp. Is this bog standard PLA or ABS or one of the newer magic 'things'. It would bend and jam if it cannot be extruded due to a low temp. And do not believe your temp reading depending on your hotend thermistor; they can lie. If you can independently measure, then do so.

Have you raised your Z axis and done a nice long extrusion while watching and listening? Both watching and listening are brilliant tools to diagnose a problem.