Cooper was born in Malibu, California, and earned an undergraduate degree from Middlebury College in 1994. Cooper received an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University and has twice been a fellow of the MacDowell Colony. He has also attended Ledig House International and The Millay Colony, where he was The New York Times Foundation fellow for 2008. Cooper currently lives in New York with his family.

Since the publication of Lipshitz Six, Cooper has received significant positive critical attention, including a positive review in The New York Times Book Review and being placed on both Time Out New York magazine's list of "25 New Yorkers to Keep an Eye On in 2006" and Out magazine's "100 Men and Women Who Rocked 2006" list. The novel was also chosen as a Best Book of 2006 by The Believer and The Austin Chronicle.

Cooper's short fiction has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New Yorker, One Story, Electric Literature, The Brooklyn Review, and others. Cooper's non-fiction writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times, The New York Times Style Magazine, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Out Magazine, and Punk Planet, among many others.