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Iconic 80s movie star looks unrecognizable as he steps out in LA 40 years after smash hit movie – do you recognise him?

Iconic 80s movie star looks unrecognizable as he steps out in LA 40 years after smash hit movie – do you recognise him?

The Sun08-06-2025
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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Millionaire Sacha's fat jab jibe is a kick in the abs to normal people struggling with obesity
Millionaire Sacha's fat jab jibe is a kick in the abs to normal people struggling with obesity

The Sun

time11 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Millionaire Sacha's fat jab jibe is a kick in the abs to normal people struggling with obesity

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WWE star Chelsea Green quits social media after being attacked over controversial Hulk Hogan tribute
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Daily Mail​

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Elon Musk opened a diner in Hollywood. What could go wrong? I went to find out
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The Guardian

timean hour ago

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Elon Musk opened a diner in Hollywood. What could go wrong? I went to find out

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The line to get into the diner on Wednesday morning was so long, an employee told us, in part because of technical problems. The app that allowed Tesla drivers to order from their cars was glitching, so the diner was 'prioritizing' Tesla owners who had to come inside to order instead. This meant that non-Tesla owners in the walk-up line might need to wait as long as two to three hours before we got our food. I expected at least a few people to leave the walk-up line immediately, but the only ones who did were two families of Tesla owners who went back to order from within their cars. Even if the app didn't work for them, they would still get their food faster. The hierarchy was clear: things were broken for everyone, but owners of Musk products had to suffer slightly less. The rest of us kept waiting in the hot sun. 'Retro-futurism', in this case, seemed to mean gorgeous, Tesla-inspired, mid-century modern architecture coupled with wait times that would shutter an ordinary McDonald's. An episode of Star Trek was playing on the giant drive-in movie screens, but the best entertainment available was watching tricked-out Cybertrucks arrive and depart. I counted at least six when I arrived, and more kept appearing: a neon orange Cybertruck with Texas plates, another floating on giant custom rims. I did not spot a single anti-Musk protester, though social media posts were advertising protests outside the diner later in the week. Musk's special projects have often unfolded with a degree of chaos. Most recently, his attempt to dismantle the large parts of the US government ended with him feuding with the president he had spent nearly $300m to elect. Serving high-end burgers to Tesla fans while they charge their electric cars should be much easier than launching space rockets, developing brain implants or running a social media platform that is not overrun with hate speech and harassment. 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'It gets better and better,' sighed a man behind me. Josh Bates and his son Phoenix were in town for the day from Orange county, where they lived. 'We are big Musk fans,' he said. Phoenix, age 10, had been excited to visit the diner. 'I never seen Elon Musk open a restaurant, so I just wanted to come here and see how the food is,' he explained. But after waiting in line for 20 minutes and not getting much closer to ordering, Bates decided it was time to find somewhere else for lunch. 'It's the grand opening – things happen,' the father said. 'It is what it is. They're doing the best they can.' Bates wasn't the only Musk fan with this attitude. Ivan Daza, 36, who lived in Los Angeles, later told me that he had waited two hours the day before, only to be told around 6 or 7pm that the Tesla Diner's kitchen was closed. He had brought his eight-year-old daughter back the next day to try again. She had seen the Tesla Diner on YouTube and was especially excited to see the Optimus robot. But it turned out that Optimus was not in operation. Daza said he was surprised by the various problems the kitchen seemed to be having – he thought they would have a 'plan B'. But he was pleased the diner offered an 'experience'. The prices, though expensive, weren't that bad for Los Angeles. The burger was $13.50, without french fries. Later, as Daza ate the meal that had taken him two days to get, he grinned: 'Delicious.' The interior design was certainly closer to Disneyland than In-N-Out: all sleek and shining chrome, futuristic 1950s white chairs and tables, and beautifully designed lighting. The curved staircase up to the Skypad was decorated with robots in display cases on the wall. Inside a curved chrome window was what looked like a pretty ordinary, low-tech restaurant kitchen. I had waited in line for a full hour before I could place my order. When I finally got to the register, I asked an employee to remind me what on the menu was actually available. She said I needed to check the screen in front of me – they had whatever was there. It turned out, contrary to what I had been told, that I could order both chicken and waffles. After the long wait outside, my food arrived in about 10 minutes – much less than the three-hour wait I feared, but absurdly long for any fast-casual restaurant. A waffle, branded with the Tesla lightning bolt, was cold. The fried chicken had a tasty coating but was also cold. The heap of kale and tomatoes was only partially dressed with an odd dill-flavored dressing. The generic-brand cola tasted cheap and was served with a woke bamboo straw. But the food did come in elaborate Cybertruck boxes – and they were, to be honest, delightful. While locals seemed to be forgiving of the new diner's glitches, some tourists were less impressed. Rick Yin, 32, who was visiting Los Angeles from China with his mother, had stopped by the diner on their way to the airport to 'grab a quick lunch' that had turned out not to be quick at all. Yin had also been excited to see the Optimus robot in action, and had hoped the diner would be 'more hi-tech'. What he had found was 'a regular restaurant'. 'It's all right,' he said, while still waiting for his food. After eating, he said he liked the Cybertruck boxes: 'That's the only thing that's worth it.' I took my meal upstairs , to the Skypad, an open-air balcony with a view of the charging Teslas. The Twilight Zone was now playing on two giant screens. I sat down next to a steady line of people buying Tesla Diner merch: a $95 retro diner hoodie, $65 Tesla salt and pepper shakers, a $175 'levitating Cybertruck' figurine. There was a large popcorn machine in front of me, which seemed to be where Optimus had been serving snacks on opening night. Musk had been posting on X earlier in the morning that 'Optimus will bring the food to your car next year' and suggesting the robot might be dressed in a 'cute' retro outfit. In reality, Optimus was nowhere in sight. The robot was 'out today', an employee told me later, as if the pricey piece of machinery were a human celebrity with a busy schedule. 'Maybe tomorrow.' 'Is it possible to get some popcorn regardless of the robot?' a woman asked. 'It's probably old popcorn,' an employee told her regretfully. A different employee warned me that I could not walk down the same staircase I had taken up to the Skypad because it was too crowded and that 'everyone's colliding with each other and trays and milkshakes'. I would have to go down another way: a bland flight of stairs without any hi-tech decoration. During a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday, as the company disclosed declining revenue and profits, Musk highlighted his new burger palace as a success: 'Diners don't typically get headline news around Earth,' he bragged. He also called the diner 'a shiny beacon of hope in an otherwise sort-of bleak urban landscape'. (It is located on Santa Monica Boulevard, in a neighborhood full of high-end art galleries.) I'd had plenty of time in the diner line to think about 'retro-futuristic' experiences, and how good a description that was, not so much for this very ordinary diner, but for the rightwing political project that Musk had joined. We were now moving into a future that offered tank-like electric cars and on-demand drone deliveries, and also a resurgence of measles outbreaks and women dying from preventable pregnancy-related complications. But continuing to function in the United States right now requires being very good at compartmentalization. I tucked away the cardboard Cybertruck lids to show my co-workers, threw away the Tesla waffles, and went on with my day. Nothing works properly here any more, but hey, it's an experience.

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