I think if it was broken like:
people would tend to actually say
Because how can you say
kkhan
?
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The extra k is due to an assimilation from Sanskrit, see above. I don’t it has any additional sound.
Oh really? You have a citation for that? I was always taught they were pronounced like the double consonants in e.g. Italian 
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Are you speaking about dividing and pronouncing syllables of a word, or dividing up parts of a compound? There seems to be a difference.
I had a look at Geiger but could not find an exact explanation of this compound forming.
I did find, however, in Section 1, #74.1 what seems to be at least related, “Confrontation of vowels and consonants (mixed sandhi)”, where the following are cited:
muni ppakāsayi
tatra ssu
na ppajahanti
na ppamajjasi
Perhaps interestingly, I looked up ‘muni ppakāsayi’ as it comes from verse- Sutta Nipāta #251.
(Verse, due to metre, can often give better hints to pronunciation and syllabification. )
The PTS edition has:
citrāhi gāthāhi muni-ppakāsayi
while CST (where it is numbered 254)
has ‘ munī pakāsayi’. (The double p is omitted and the i in ‘muni’ is strengthened. )
I would have thought it was clear we are talking about pronunciation. The question in the OP is about a chanting book, not a grammar book.
I don’t think anything you have said about this is incorrect as far as grammar (or whatever the proper term is). But to me the issue in making a chanting book is making correct pronunciation easy.
It really is a confounding issue since none of the ways of breaking the word feels right.
I’m sorry that I could not be of more help.
I’ve presented my ideas on both pronunciation and syllabification, tried to base both on how the compound is constructed, and compared it to what seems to me analogous examples.
At the end of the day it’s surely a minor detail.
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My rather elementary understanding, based on the pronunciation guide I quoted above: Pronunciation | A Chanting Guide,
is that “Khak” is a long (full-length) syllable, like the initial syllable “duk”. That is a rather important matter when one is trying to chant along with others, or figure out the metre of poetry. There is quite a difference between:
duk-khak-khan-dhas-sa vs duk-kha(k)-khan-dhas-sa
I would, of course, be grateful for correction if I am misinterpreting this…
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