Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he is the brother of screenwriter Steve Cohen. Cohen also wrote the narration for the television documentary Hollywood Remembers Walter Matthau (2001), which featured an interview with Brent Spiner. In 2008, Cohen published Screen Plays: How 25 Scripts Made it to a Theater Near You - For Better or Worse, in which he partly recalls his work on Deep Space Nine. Cohen is also the author of Terminator Genisys: Resetting the Future.