It would be more simple to just first make a database of the count of letters in your list. Then compare the users letter with the database
words = ["joke","haze","kick","apex","buff","exam","mope","pick"]
d = {}
for word in words:
for letter in word:
count = word.count(letter)
try:
d[word][letter] = count
except KeyError:
d[word] = {}
d[word][letter] = count
print(d)
Output:
{'joke': {'j': 1, 'o': 1, 'k': 1, 'e': 1}, 'haze': {'h': 1, 'a': 1, 'z': 1, 'e': 1}, 'kick': {'k': 2, 'i': 1, 'c': 1}, 'apex': {'a': 1, 'p': 1, 'e': 1, 'x': 1}, 'buff': {'b': 1, 'u': 1, 'f': 2}, 'exam': {'e': 1, 'x': 1, 'a': 1, 'm': 1}, 'mope': {'m': 1, 'o': 1, 'p': 1, 'e': 1}, 'pick': {'p': 1, 'i': 1, 'c': 1, 'k': 1}}
Then you just input what the user into the dictionary to give the count
import random
words = ["joke","haze","kick","apex","buff","exam","mope","pick"]
d = {}
for word in words:
for letter in word:
count = word.count(letter)
try:
d[word][letter] = count
except KeyError:
d[word] = {}
d[word][letter] = count
print(d)
chosen = random.choice(words)
search = input(f'search for letter in {chosen}: ')
print(d[chosen][search])