ICONIC 80s movie star Jeff Cohen looked totally unrecognizable this week as he stepped out in Los Angeles.
Best known for playing Chunk, the beloved truffle-shuffler from the 1985 Spielberg-produced hit, The Goonies, Cohen looked world’s away from his onscreen persona.
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Now 50, the one-time child star currently works as a successful entertainment lawyer.
Dressed in a suit jacket, jeans, and a maroon fedora, Jeff was a far cry from the ice cream-obsessed, Hawaii-shirt-wearing-mischief-maker he played as a kid.
Before leaving acting behind, Cohen appeared in hit TV shows like Family Ties, The Facts of Life, and Webster, but he says it was puberty that ended his Hollywood dream.
“There were basically about four fat kids in town, so every time there was a fat kid role, you saw the same people at the audition,” Jeff once shared.
“It was survival of the fattest. But when I hit puberty, it was a career ender for me. I was transforming from Chunk to hunk and I couldn’t get roles any more.”
He added: “It was terrible. My first love was acting, but puberty had other ideas. It was a forced retirement. I didn’t give up acting. Acting gave me up.”
Cohen, who studied at UC Berkeley and later went to UCLA School of Law, co-founded Cohen Gardner LLP in 2002.
Despite his fame as a child, he says clients have no problem taking him seriously.
“My clients get a kick out of the fact their lawyer is Chunk. They dig it,” he said. “With my job, I’m dealing with legitimately famous people, so it’s just silly and fun.
“I’m usually only the fifth most famous person in the room at any one time.”
Cohen’s memories of making The Goonies remain vivid.
“It was great,” he recalled. “For me, the best part about it was Richard Donner the director. He was big on letting the kids be kids and I think that’s one of the reasons the movie stands up today.”
He continued: “People still watch the movie themselves or watch it with their own kids. Even though it’s very eighties in the fashions, it’s still kids being kids.
“Richard Donner wanted us to improvise, talk over each other, push and shove and kind of do our thing.
“I think that’s one of the reasons people like it. It doesn’t seem like kids acting. It’s just kids being themselves, which Richard really encouraged. He wanted us to be comfortable.”
Recalling one particular moment with Donner, Jeff said: “In the scene where Sloth picks me up while I’m strapped to a chair, I was told he wasn’t going to pick me up because John Matuszak’s back hurt.
“But of course, John was so strong it was nothing to him, so he just picked me up and kissed me. My shock and horror was real. I wasn’t that good an actor – that was actual terror on my face.”
Earlier this year, Jeff reunited with his co-stars to celebrate fellow Goonie Ke Huy Quan, who played Data, as he was honored at the TCL Chinese Theater.
Cohen, along with Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Kerri Green, and screenwriter Chris Columbus turned out to support Quan, who won an Oscar last year for Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Jeff, now Ke Huy Quan’s entertainment lawyer, gave his friend a proud bear hug as the group relived their childhood memories on the red carpet.
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