For many child performers, the end of constant attention feels like a free fall. The identity built around applause, fan mail, and casting calls can vanish almost overnight. Physical changes, shifting trends, and Hollywood’s unforgiving standards often close doors just as adolescence begins. Without support, that silence can feel like rejection. Yet beneath the heartbreak lies a pivotal crossroads: cling to a fading image, or risk becoming someone new.
Those who rise again rarely do it alone. They lean into education, mentors, and the humility of starting over. They learn to see early fame not as a peak, but as raw experience they can reshape. Jeff Cohen, once beloved as Chunk from The Goonies, stepped away from acting, studied law, and returned to Hollywood as an advocate, not a child prop. His story shows the quiet revolution possible when former child stars reclaim their narrative—trading nostalgia for purpose, and applause for a legacy that finally belongs to them.
