Of Italian (Calabrese) descent, Cortese was born on September 14, 1967, in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Quaker Valley High School in Leetsdale, where he played football and basketball.
[1][2] Prior to becoming an actor, Cortese played college football at the University of North Carolina as a backup quarterback.
Cortese graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts degree in broadcasting in 1990.
In 1993, per producer Joel Silver, Cortese made two separate cameos (Taco Bell Lounge singer and a Cryo Prison guard) in the Sylvester Stallone film Demolition Man.
He played Tony, the ultra-cool, good-looking, rock climbing boyfriend of Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss).
From 2002 to 2003, Cortese also had a recurring role in the first season of The WB sitcom What I Like About You as Vic Maledeo, the boss of Val Tyler (Jennie Garth).
In 2004, he appeared in two episodes of the third season of the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules as Scott McCallister, a tennis coach who is briefly caught in a love triangle with his player Bridget Hennessy (Kaley Cuoco) and her mother Cate Hennessy (Katey Sagal).
From 2013 to 2014, Cortese served a two-year run as the host of truTV's Guinness World Records Unleashed.