Son of actor Beau Bridges and Julie Bridges As a child actor he acted in two television films The Kid from Nowhere 1982 TV directed by his father and Walt Disneys Wonderful World of Color The Thanksgiving Promise 318 1986 starring the entire Bridges family However he chose not to continue working as a child actor so he could be just a regular kid He attended the progressive Oakwood school with a strong emphasis on the arts which got him interested in acting He followed it up as a theater major and literature minor at New Yorks Bard College Before earning his bachelors degree Bridges spent his junior year in England studying at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts staying at a tiny basement flat in Chelsea eating lots of chicken noodles and attending West End theater productions on free passes Classically trained he became a cater waiter in New York and Los Angeles for a couple of years each before he started getting roles in television and film