He graduated from Crespi Carmelite High School and attended Pierce College for two years. He attended American Theater Arts, a combined conservatory and theater company in Los Angeles, where he appeared in the plays Richard's Cork Leg by Brendan Behan and Private Life of the Master Race by Bertold Brecht. In 1983, he and his wife, Vivian, moved to New York City, where he took odd jobs like installing drapery to support his family. He joined the off-off-Broadway Cucaracha Theater on Greenwich Street.