Cohen was born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon in Los Angeles, and took his stage name from the maiden name of his mother, Elaine Cohen. Since the part of "Chunk" in The Goonies entailed a lot of mockery at Cohen's considerable girth, he took up high school football and has since lost a great deal of weight as an adult. Cohen was one of the kids 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. Cohen attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business in 1996. While at UC Berkeley, Cohen was a resident assistant in Cheney Hall and became president of the Associated Students. His campaign posters featured