Cohen was considered the country's only serious drama critic during the first two decades following World War II, the period when Canadian theatre became established.
[3] As a child, he read persistently in the backroom of his parents' grocery store, where he developed a love for science fiction, comics, and novels.
[7] He graduated from Sydney Academy High School, where he was heavily influenced by one of his English teachers, William Mould, who encouraged him to read Shakespeare.
[1] He found employment as a journalist, in effect becoming a one-man show, by editing, reporting, typesetting and publishing the Glace Bay Gazette, a union-owned mass-published daily newspaper from 1942 to 1945.
[6] Joe Gershman, the editor of the Vochenblatt, later remarked about Cohen's Communist affiliation: "During the years he was a member, he was a rebel against certain postulates held by the party.
He felt a writer should be given a chance to explore and write freely what he thinks and sees, rather than follow the party line.
[6] Cohen received national prominence as host of Fighting Words, an intellectual, but popular panel show on CBC Television from 1953 to 1962.