Coen is a trawlwoolway pakana related to northeast lutruwita.

Coen is a researcher and teacher with broad interests in Indigenous sciences, ecophysiology, and conservation biology. Coen has special interest and experience in understanding the effects of climate change on the physiology, behaviour, and ecology of organisms. Coen is currently undertaking his PhD investigating the role of changing temperature and ultraviolet radiation on the physiology and health of amphibians.

A large part of Coen's drive as an academic comes from the need for environmental rights-based discourse, better engagement with Indigenous peoples, and developing understanding and respect around Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous sovereignty within the sciences, especially surrounding the ways in which scientists engage with the environment on Indigenous Countries. Coen has written on Indigenous connections to Antarctica and is interested in the tensions that Indigenous scientists experience when interfacing with the dominant Euro-colonial mode of knowledge production in the environmental sciences.