After finding fame as a child actor for playing Chunk in the 1985 adventure classic The Goonies, Jeff Cohen chose to pursue a legal career after learning many of the most important figures on the business side of Hollywood had law degrees.
And now he's making headlines after it emerged he helped his former Goonies co-star Ke Huy Quan—who played the amateur gadgeteer Data—score his role in the hit film Everything Everywhere All At Once, for which Quan won a Golden Globe Award over the weekend.
Quan—a lock for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination—revealed Cohen represented him for the role of Waymond Wang, his first major role in over two decades.
Speaking during The Hollywood Reporter's annual Actor Roundtable, Quan called Cohen an "outstanding lawyer," adding:
"When the producer of our movie was trying to make my deal, he said he never imagined that he'd have to talk to Chunk and Data for his movie."
You can hear his remarks in the video below.
Quan rose to fame in the mid-1980s for playing Short Round opposite Harrison Ford in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom before Spielberg cast him in The Goonies. He left acting in the 1990s after struggling to find work as a young adult.
He mulled a return to the silver screen after seeing his Everything Everywhere All At Once co-star Michelle Yeoh's performance in the 2018 hit Crazy Rich Asians.
A meme of former Democratic political candidate Andrew Yang—captioned "Short Round is all grown up and he's running for president"—put him on the radar of directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who cast him in 2022's sleeper hit.
Recalling how he was ultimately selected for the role, Quan said:
"They started doing the calculation, 'Oh, he's about the same age as this character.' It was at the same time that I called up an agent friend of mine. I didn't have an agent for decades, so I was practically begging him to represent me, and he said yes."
The news Quan's longtime friend and former co-star Cohen helped him clinch the role warmed many people's hearts.
Cohen's career in entertainment law has long attracted public notice.
He co-founded the Cohen & Gardner firm in Beverly Hills, California and has been profiled by The Hollywood Reporter, The ABA Journal, Chambers Associate, Law Crossing and others.
In the September 24, 2008 issue of Variety, Cohen was profiled in the Dealmakers Impact Report. He has also authored many articles on the entertainment business for such publications as The Huffington Post and CNBC.
