Jeff Cohen (actor)

Jeffrey Bertan Cohen, J.D. (born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon; June 25, 1974) is an American attorney (and founding partner of Cohen & Gardner, LLP)^[1] and former child actor best remembered for appearing as Chunk in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production The Goonies.

Life and career

Cohen was born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon in Los Angeles. He took his stage name from the maiden name of his mother, Elaine Cohen.^[2] Since the part of "Chunk" entailed a lot of mockery at Cohen's considerable girth, he took up high school football and has lost a great deal of weight as an adult. Cohen was one of the children describing words to the contestants on the 1982–83 CBS game show Child's Play, and during the summer of 1985 he appeared as a celebrity on Body Language. According to a 2014 story on Cohen in the magazine of the American Bar Association, the ABA Journal, "puberty hit and forced Cohen into early retirement."^[1]

Cohen's sister, Eydie Faye, is a playwright and actress. In the final scene of The Goonies, when the families gather on the beach, Faye has a cameo as Chunk's sister.

Cohen attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business in 1996. While at UC Berkeley, Cohen was a resident assistant during the 1994–1995 academic year at Unit I's Putnam Hall and later on in Norton Hall. He became President of the Associated Students; his campaign posters featured a picture of himself from his Goonies days and the simple slogan "Chunk for president". He was also known for his energy at football games serving as the "Mic-Man" and performing the now-famous Truffle Shuffle on the sidelines to raise applause from the crowd. While at Berkeley, Cohen also was initiated as a brother into the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity.

Cohen also used introductions from Goonies director Richard Donner to get summer jobs on the business side of movie studios; he would say about that time in the ABA Journal story, "I grew up loving The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers, but suddenly I had a new crop of heroes." He chose to pursue a legal career upon finding out that many of the most important figures on the business side of Hollywood had law degrees.^[1]

After his time at Berkeley, Cohen graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 2000^[1] and later became an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles. In 2002, he co-founded the Cohen & Gardner firm in Beverly Hills.^[3][4] In the September 24, 2008 issue of Variety, Cohen was profiled in the Dealmakers Impact Report.^[3] Additionally, Cohen was named to The Hollywood Reporter's Next Generation: Hollywood's Top 35 Executives 35 and Under in their November 5 issue.^[5]

Cohen claimed in The Goonies DVD commentary track that every role he played as a child had him wearing either a Hawaiian shirt or a pair of plaid pants, and director Richard Donner had the brilliant idea to put him in both for The Goonies.^[6] Before The Goonies started filming, Cohen contracted chicken pox. Afraid that they would re-cast the role, he told no one of his illness and showed up to work anyway. According to the commentary track on The Goonies DVD, the chicken pox on Cohen's chest can be seen during the famous "Truffle Shuffle" sequence.^[6]

Cohen was named to Variety's Dealmakers Impact Report in 2013.^[7]

The American Bar Association profiled Cohen in 2014.^[8]

As of February 2014, he periodically "writes about business, legal and political matters for The Huffington Post and CNBC."^[1]

Filmography

References

External links

• Cohen Gardner LLP
• Jeff Cohen at the Internet Movie Database
• The Guardian interview