The comedian, who has also found fame as a Hollywood actor as well as being infamous for a series of lurid stories linking him with sex and drug-fuelled affairs - was the second high-profile celebrity to appear before the inquiry. Hugh Grant gave evidence on Monday.
Coogan revealed that the "tip off" from reporter Rav Singh came at a price.
Two years later Mr Singh, by now with his own gossip column on the News of the World, phoned him. The actor said: "I was in a relationship that was breaking up because of an affair I had.
"He (Singh) called me and said, 'Look, I want to help you.' I begged him not to put in some of the more lurid details of the story. He said that if I confirmed certain aspects, the more lurid details would be left out.
"So I confirmed certain details for him and he gave me his word that the more embarrassing parts of the story, which I knew would upset my then wife's family, would be omitted.
"After that, my manager received a phonecall from Andy Coulson saying that they'd recorded the whole phonecall and they were going to put everything in the newspaper."
The comedian told the hearing that he had not made a "Faustian pact" with the press.
Some people did use the press, he said, but he did not and was not in the "fame game".
Admitting he had been the victim of several "kiss-and-tell" stories, Coogan described one occasion when a journalist telephoned the great-grandmother of his daughter pretending to be conducting a survey for her local council.
"They started to ask more and more questions pertinent to me," he said. "At that point she said, 'Are you from the gutter press?'" The journalist admitted he was from the Daily Mirror, Coogan said.
On another occasion he said the Daily Mirror paid a woman between £5,000 and £10,000 for a kiss-and-tell story and the journalist involved "doorstepped" the pregnant mother of his daughter.
He said he was often under surveillance from photographers and that reporters went through his bins.
He also criticised the Sunday Times for using a paparazzi photograph of his children without his permission.
Mr Coogan told the hearing that in August and September 2007, the Daily Mail printed a number of articles which reported claims that he was somehow responsible for, or connected with, the alleged suicide attempt of his friend, the US actor Owen Wilson.
The story came from a report in US Weekly magazine and was picked up by several British newspapers, including the Mail. The story and a subsequent feature both included a denial from Coogan.
He told the hearing he had not been in the same continent as Wilson for nine months before the incident and had never taken drugs with him.
Coogan confirmed he issued a curt denial but had not complained directly to either the newspaper or the Press Complaints Commission.
The comedian said he did not want to say anything more "to give legs to the story".
Counsel for the inquiry Robert Jay said: "They (the Daily Mail) also recorded your strong denial of the allegations, didn't they?"
Coogan replied: "Yes. It wasn't a headline, though."
The actor said he wanted a privacy law but also a free press. "Press freedom is important," he said.
"There is some brilliant journalism in this country. There needs to be a privacy law so that genuine public-interest journalism is not besmirched by this tawdry muck-raking."
And he told the judge the inquiry was not just about him and Hugh Grant.
"We are here, not with any great enthusiasm," he said. "We are here because somebody has to represent all those other people who have not got the stomach to be here."
- THE DAILY MAIL
