Born in New York, but raised in Pasadena, Pinchot attended Yale on a full scholarship and it was there it began to pursue acting. Cast in an off-Broadway play soon after his 1981 graduation, Pinchot was seen by a casting director and played "one of the guys" supporting parts in "Risky Business" (1983) and "The Flamingo Kid" (1984). Cast in the small, but featured role of an associate art dealer in "Beverly Hills Cop" (1984), Pinchot stole his one real scene from Eddie Murphy. His "Serge" was a bit of an elitist and hated exposed chest hair, but was nevertheless charming and delightfully quirky. Audiences all across America walked out of the theatre asking who was the actor who played Serge. Although Pinchot was committed to a supporting part in the short-lived NBC series "Sara" (1985), upon that show's demise he was given "Balki" in "Perfect Strangers", a show created especially to highlight his accent and eccentric style. As with Serge, no one could quite pin down the origin of the accent, but audiences kept "Perfect Strangers" on the air for seven seasons. He skidded with "The Trouble With Larry" (CBS, 1993), in which he was again a visitor who comes to stay--this time a long-lost husband.

But Pinchot had difficulty translating his small screen success into big screen stardom. He flopped badly with "Second Sight" (1989) and "Blame it on the Bellboy" (1991). Pinchot breathed some life into his feature film career with the violent "True Romance" (1993) and by reprising his role as Serge in "Beverly Hills Cop III" (1994), again stealing scenes from Murphy. He is featured in a dramatic role in the war drama "Courage Under Fire" (1996), alongside Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington, and offered comic support to Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in "The First Wives' Club" (also 1996).

Television has continued to offer Pinchot with opportunities. In 1995, he was one of the ensemble stars in the ABC miniseries adapted from "Stephen King's 'The Landoliers'". The following year, he joined the long-running ABC sitcom "Step by Step" as the owner of a hair salon. Unlike the highly-charged characters Pinchot has been known to play, on TV talk shows he has proven to be erudite and often has recounted stories of his hormonally-charged teenage years.