Josef Coenen was born on 30 March 1885 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Coenen began working there in 1912 as a recording manager and director at the film production company Decla until 1916. From 1918 to 1920 he was again engaged as a director by Decla and staged several films with Carola Toelle in the leading role. Between 1922 and 1929 Josef Coenen owned his own production company in Munich . In 1929 an obligation took him to Paris (Perret Pictures).

The transition to the sound film failed Coenen; from 1932 to 1936 he was ill, since January 1938 unemployed. His last sign of life dates from 1941.