Born in San Francisco and grew up in Southern California, Pedersen was never formally trained as an actor; is musician, race car driver, and become actor when was approached by director Penelope Spheeris at a park in Burbank where the band T.S.O.L. was playing; Pedersen appeared in Platoon, Night of the Comet and Point Break, but he began to distance himself from the film industry in the early 1990s, focusing instead on cars and technology.