Use ko html:
instead of ko text:
and data-bind="html:
instead of data-bind="text:
1. An example of «data-bind="html:»
2 An example of «ko html:»
Magento 2 core never uses this syntax, but it does work:
<div class="field-tooltip-content" data-target="dropdown">
<!-- ko html: tooltip.description --><!-- /ko -->
</div>