Cohen attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where he majored in elementary education and was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi. During his first week at school, he was kicked out of a local fast food restaurant when an employee thought he was drunk and threatened to call the police, even as Cohen and his friends were trying to explain about his vocal tics and TS. Within hours, fellow students began to organize a boycott of the restaurant; the manager phoned Cohen and asked him to come back to the restaurant so he could apologize in person.