diff --git a/ci/release-image/Dockerfile b/ci/release-image/Dockerfile
index 5c31ecbe7..a0b6aed71 100644
--- a/ci/release-image/Dockerfile
+++ b/ci/release-image/Dockerfile
@@ -43,5 +43,6 @@ EXPOSE 8080
 # the uid will remain the same. note: only relevant if -u isn't passed to
 # docker-run.
 USER 1000
+ENV USER=coder
 WORKDIR /home/coder
 ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/entrypoint.sh", "--bind-addr", "0.0.0.0:8080", "."]
diff --git a/ci/release-image/entrypoint.sh b/ci/release-image/entrypoint.sh
index b4343e7ed..abf9fddb3 100755
--- a/ci/release-image/entrypoint.sh
+++ b/ci/release-image/entrypoint.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,6 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 set -eu
 
-# This isn't set by default.
-USER="$(whoami)"
-export USER
-
 if [ "${DOCKER_USER-}" ] && [ "$DOCKER_USER" != "$USER" ]; then
   echo "$DOCKER_USER ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL" | sudo tee -a /etc/sudoers.d/nopasswd > /dev/null
   # Unfortunately we cannot change $HOME as we cannot move any bind mounts