Describing himself as a child, Cooper has said: "I never lived the life of 'Oh, you're so good-looking'.

People thought I was a girl when I was little, because I looked like a girl — maybe because my
mother would keep my hair really long."[10] He excelled at basketball, and enjoyed cooking: "I used to
have buddies come over after kindergarten and I'd cook them food. I prided myself in taking
whatever was in the fridge and turning it into lasagna."[11] He initially wanted to attend Valley Forge
Military Academy and move to Japan to become a ninja.[12] At an early age, his father introduced him
to films like The Elephant Man,[8] which inspired him to be an actor.[13] Coming from a family of non-
actors, Cooper says his parents initially wanted him to pursue a career in finance and were against
acting, but they eventually changed their perceptions when they saw Cooper play the part of Joseph
Merrick in an excerpt from the play The Elephant Man.[8][14]

While attending Germantown Academy, he worked at the Philadelphia Daily News.[15] He says that in
school he was neither "the smartest person" nor "the coolest kid" and "really didn't have anything
going on!"[16] After graduating from high school in 1993, Cooper attended Villanova University for one
year before transferring to Georgetown University, where
he majored in English and minored in French.[17][18] Cooper graduated with honors from Georgetown in
1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[5][19] He was a member of the Georgetown Hoyas rowing team
and acted with Nomadic Theatre.[20][21] While at Georgetown, Cooper became fluent in French and
spent six months as an exchange student in Aix-en-Provence, France.[22] In his television debut, Sex
and the City in 1999, he made a brief appearance opposite Sarah Jessica Parker.[23] Cooper later
served as a presenter on the tourism series Globe Trekker (2000), which took him to such places
as Peru and Croatia, and had a recurring role in the short-lived series The Street.[9][24][25]

Cooper had been interested in a career in diplomacy when he auditioned for the master
class graduate degree at the Actors Studio and was selected by James Lipton.[26] In 2000, he
received a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the Actors Studio Drama School at The New
School in New York City.[27] There, he trained with the coach Elizabeth Kemp of whom he says: "I
was never able to relax in my life before her." She advised him on many of his films. [28] While
studying in New York City, Cooper worked as a doorman at the Morgans Hotel,[3] and briefly
interacted with Robert de Niro and Sean Penn in question-and-answer master class sessions, which
were later featured episodes of Inside the Actors Studio.[26]

Career
2001–2008: Early roles
Cooper missed his MFA graduation ceremony to film Wet Hot American Summer (2001), an
ensemble comedy that marked his cinematic debut. Taking place at a fictional summer camp in
1981, the film had him play Ben, a counselor and the love interest of Michael Ian Black's character.
[29]
Although the film was critically and commercially unsuccessful, it has since developed a cult
following. Cooper reprised the role in the film's prequel Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of
Camp (2015), an eight-episode Netflix series.[30]

In the television series Alias (2001–2006), Cooper achieved some success with the role of Will
Tippin, a local reporter for a newspaper and the best friend of Jennifer Garner's character, Sydney
Bristow.[23] Garner was one of the first people he met in Los Angeles and was, in Cooper's words,
"very maternal ... She wanted to take care of me, make sure I was okay all the time." [31] A writer
for Complex Networks called his character "arguably the heart of Season 1".[32] As his screen time
began to decrease, Cooper grew frustrated. Although he would work only three days, he requested
creator J. J. Abrams to write his character off the show.[33] Shortly after his conversation with Abrams,
Cooper tore his Achilles tendon while playing basketball. During his recovery, he considered quitting
acting permanently, though in 2004, he was cast in Wedding Crashers (2005).[33] During this period,
he acted in the 2002 psychological thriller Changing Lanes. The scenes in which he appeared were
edited out of the final cut of the film, but are featured on the film's DVD and Blu-ray releases. [34]
[35]
Other roles included in Bending All the Rules (2002),[36] the short-lived TV series Miss
Match (2003),[37] the television film I Want to Marry Ryan Banks (2004) and the WB series Jack &
Bobby (2004–2005).[38]