Jackie Tohn Says Jessica Biel Convinced Her to Drop Out of College

Jessica Biel Unveils Workout Routine—and Justin Timberlake Has Hilariously Relatable Reaction

Nobody wants to let Jessica Biel down.

And that’s why when the 7th Heaven star suggested pal Jackie Tohn drop out of the University of Delaware to focus on her acting career, the Nobody Wants This actress jumped at the chance.

“I don’t know that she admits this, but she is who convinced me to drop out of college,” Tohn, 45, told Dax Shepard on the July 13 episode of his Armchair Expert podcast, noting that “it wasn’t a hard convince.”

“It was literally like, ‘I can’t live here, I have nowhere to live,’” Tohn continued of her conversation with Biel. “And she was like, ‘Live with my family.’ And I was like, ‘See ya, U Delaware!’”

And while the then-18-year-old GLOW actress had just met the then-17-year-old New Year’s Eve star a day prior at the TV Guide Awards, the Biels took her in like a second daughter.

“Kim Biel, Jess’ mom, taught me how to write a check. Literally, taught me how to pump gas,” Tohn shared. “I moved out of the house so young. I went to college for one semester. I barely had my driver’s license for a year.”

“I was so young and my parents, to their credit, once they knew I was moving in with this TV star’s family, my parents met her parents and everything was super sweet,” she added. “I wasn’t going to stay for long. It was just to get me on my feet and move me out here.”

Tohn went on to live with Biel for less than six months. But the duo made their time together count by “putting on wigs and dressing crazy and going to friends’ parties at UCLA.”

Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images

The Sisters actress added, “The pictures from that time are crazy.”

And The Texas Chainsaw Massacre star certainly remembers that time just as fondly. After all, Biel, 44, previously shared insight into the importance of having “chosen sisters.”

“I'm really lucky,” Biel told Instyle in an interview published in May 2025, “because I have amazing groups of women kind of scattered throughout the country that have really been my rocks as I've grown up.”

And of course, Biel’s husband Justin Timberlake is among her bunch of besties.

“I would also consider my husband one of my chosen sisters,” Biel explained. “He’s also my best friend. All of them together have gotten me through my life. I don't know how I would have survived life without them.”

For more celebrity roommates who lived together once upon a time in Hollywood, read on…

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