Jeff Cohen gives Chunk the conviction of a child who expects to be heard, however crowded the conversation. We rate his contribution to The Goonies: broad physical comedy that helps the gang feel untidy and real, though the shouting does wear.
Fi1m perspective
In The Goonies (1985), Jeff Cohen’s Chunk is one of the children who make conversation sound like a dispute over whose turn it is. Alongside Corey Feldman’s Mouth, he helps Richard Donner maintain the impression that this group has never agreed on much. His broad physical comedy suits that disorder. We rate him as part of the gang, rather than treating every interruption as an occasion to applaud. The shouting can wear, and Cohen does his share of it.
Cohen began with small television roles in 1983, and The Goonies became his breakthrough. He went on to play the lead in Ask Max (1986), with further television work including Perfect Harmony (1991), before retiring from acting after 1991. His short career was also constrained by typecasting as the comic child defined by his size. That tells us something about the parts available to him, but leaves little basis for confident claims about the adult performer he might have become.
Chunk’s Truffle Shuffle is the obvious example of physical comedy becoming the thing an actor is remembered for. Donner also put him in both a Hawaiian shirt and plaid trousers, clothes that recur in Cohen’s child roles. The costume makes the comic casting clear enough. Cohen’s useful quality is that he still comes across as a real child, not someone standing outside the adventure to deliver jokes. Chunk stretches the truth, but Cohen makes him believable as a member of this disorderly group.
We grew fond of the children in The Goonies even while wishing they would stop shouting, because Sean Astin’s Mikey takes their excitement seriously. Cohen and Feldman give that earnestness something noisy to contend with. The film’s pacing wobbles, and the competing voices can wear down the pleasure of their company; Cohen is part of that problem as well as part of what works. Watch The Goonies for how Cohen fits in with the others, not just for the dance.
Biography
Jeff Cohen is an American entertainment attorney and former child actor. Born Jeffrey Bertan Cohen (née McMahon) on 25 June 1974 in Los Angeles, California, he began acting in the early 1980s and is best known for playing Lawrence 'Chunk' Cohen in the 1985 film The Goonies. His other credits include appearances in Family Ties (1984–1987), Amazing Stories (1985–1986), Webster and The Facts of Life, as well as voice work in Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988) and the television films Ask Max (1986) and Perfect Harmony (1991).
Cohen retired from acting after 1991. He earned a Bachelor of Science in business from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. In 2002 he co-founded the Beverly Hills law firm Cohen & Gardner LLP, where he works as a transactional attorney in entertainment, media and technology. His sister, Eydie Faye, is a playwright and actress who appeared in a cameo in The Goonies.
