Jeff Cohen (actor)

Cohen was born Jeffrey Bertan McMahon on June 25, 1974, in Los Angeles, California. His father separated from his mother when he was around seven or eight. McMahon took his stage name from the maiden name of his mother, Elaine Cohen. Cohen is Jewish. Cohen attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in business. Cohen asked Goonies director Richard Donner for a recommendation for his college admissions application. Upon reading Cohen's notes detailing some of his early life struggles, Donner and his wife offered to pay for Cohen's college education. Cohen later earned a Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law. == Entertainment career ==

Acting Cohen was one of the children describing words to the contestants on the 1982–83 CBS game show ''Child's Play. During the summer of 1985, he appeared as a celebrity on Body Language. In 1986, Cohen was also in the Disney TV movie Ask Max''. Cohen's sister, Eydie Faye, is a playwright and actress. In the final scene of The Goonies, when the families reunite on the beach, Faye has a cameo as Chunk's sister. 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 idea to put him in both for The Goonies. Before The Goonies started filming, Cohen contracted chickenpox. 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 chickenpox on Cohen's chest can be seen during the "Truffle Shuffle" sequence. In the September 24, 2008 issue of Variety, Cohen was profiled in the Dealmakers Impact Report. He was named to Variety's Dealmakers Impact Report in 2013. As of February 2014, Cohen periodically "writes about business, legal and political matters for The Huffington Post and CNBC." Writing In 2015, he authored the book, “The Dealmaker's Ten Commandments” published by the American Bar Association. ==Filmography==