Chinese human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng could arrive in New York as early as this week, a longtime friend said yesterday.

Jerome Cohen, a New York University School of Law professor who befriended Chen nine ago, said there was no done deal for the “barefoot lawyer” to study at NYU but predicted he’d be here soon.

“If he came within a week, I wouldn’t be shocked,” Cohen said yesterday.

Chen, who has been blind since early childhood, escaped house arrest last week and surprised the world when he made it to the US Embassy in Beijing.

From there, he was taken to a hospital, where he remained yesterday to receive medical care.

US Embassy officials met with his wife, who joined him in Beijing. But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left the Chinese capital without visiting.

Cohen first met Chen in June 2003. He described him as this era’s “Gandhi in China.”