 Coughlin grew up in the Long Island, New York suburb of Farmingdale.He attended St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens, NY in the mid to late 1980s where he studied photography, journalism and mass communications.Coughlin also served as a staff photographer and photo editor of St. John's student newspaper, "The Torch" During his senior year, he interned as a photographer for "Newsday" in Melville, New York.