Best known for playing Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington in Welcome Back Kotter (1975–1979), he has also appeared in a number of films and television shows, including Claudine (1974), Cooley High (1975), Roots (1977), Bangers and Mash (1983), Alien Nation (1989–1990), The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992), and 31 (2016).

[1] He began his acting career in the summer of 1969 and graduated from the High School of Art and Design in 1971.

He attended Wilkes University for a short time before his acting career took off.

Jacobs also starred in cult classic Cooley High in 1975 played as Richard "Cochise" Morris, and two years later had a role in the block-buster ABC mini-series Roots.

Later in his career, he appeared in the 1989-1990 science fiction TV series Alien Nation as Sgt.