Background

Kornheiser grew up in the town of Lynbrook, New York as the only child of Estelle, a dressmaker, and Ira Kornheiser. In summers Kornheiser went to Camp Keeyumah in Pennsylvania, where Larry Brown, a future NCAA, and NBA basketball coach, was one of his counselors. Kornheiser was the sports editor for the school newspaper at George W. Hewlett High School. He received his diploma in 1965.

After high school, Kornheiser attended Harpur College (now Binghamton University), majoring in English literature and starting his journalism career at Colonial News (now called Pipe Dream). In 1970, he completed a Bachelor of Arts degree. Kornheiser has talked highly about his undergraduate years on numerous occasions. He worked with children with impairments for a short time after college.

Career Experience

Print Career

Kornheiser started his career in New York City, and he was a writer for Newsday from 1970 to 1976. He also worked for the New York Times between 1976 and 1979. Apart from his writing job, he also took a teaching job. In 1970, he became part of the Washington Post as a reporter on assignment in Sports and Style. In1984, he finally converted to a full-time sports columnist. 1984. Between November 12, 1989, and September 30, 2001, he wrote columns for the Post's Style section. His columns were generally sardonic with touches of comedy. He was among the finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary award in 1997. In 2005, he began to write short columns, which was called A Few Choice Words. He didn't write columns during his preparation to become an analyst for ESPN's Monday Night Football. This was between April 26, 2006, and August 7, 2006.

Television career

In the early 1980s, he and Pete Wysocki presented the Weekly Washington Redskins TV show. This show was shown at a local bar in Washington, and it was called Champions. In 1988, he appeared on ESPN's The Sports Reporters. When the host Dick Schaap was away, he would be the guest host for the program. He has also featured on numerous other ESPN productions, including SportsCentury, Who's Number One? and SportsCenter.

Restaurant

In January 2017, it was revealed that Kornheiser was part of a new ownership group for Chad's (previously Chadwick's), a bar and restaurant in the Friendship Heights section of Washington, D.C. The group included former Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams, TV broadcaster Maury Povich, and D.C. businessman and socialite Alan Bubes. Kornheiser is cited as saying: "Did I always want to be part of a restaurant? No. But now, with a podcast and wanting to own my content, the potential to put it on throughout the mornings or during the day and to have other people utilize it, that would be great for me."

In April 2017, Kornheiser stated that Chad's would be rebranded as Chatter.

The new owners made various upgrades, including refurbishing the interior and adding a podcast studio. Kornheiser began filming episodes of The Tony Kornheiser Show at Chatter on May 1, 2017. Many admirers of the performance visited the eatery to listen live.

On June 28, 2019, Kornheiser revealed that the podcast would relocate to a new venue following the summer vacation due to the shutdown of Chatter.

Personal Life

Kornheiser and his wife Karril currently live in the Chevy Chase district of Washington, D.C., as well as Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, along with Michael and Elizabeth, their two children. Kornheiser is a devout follower of the Jewish faith.

While in high school, Kornheiser was a member of the Young Democrats group.

Kornheiser registered as a Republican in 1990; although his wife was a Democrat, he did it because the couple wanted to "get mailings from both sides." But later, he said that registering as a Republican was a "mistake." During the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Kornheiser voted for Barack Obama. Kornheiser has a solid aversion to flying and has a habit of going to bed early on a daily basis. He is quite an intellectual and good remembering names as he knows the names of all fifty states in the United States and their capitals in alphabetical order. Kornheiser revealed in 2006 that he had skin cancer and had had therapy.