Effects are a great way for him to expand his tonal vocabulary, but what he's going to want or need will depend a lot on his style of music and playing habits. Does he practice daily? Does he play grunge, or blues, or jazz, or metal? Doe he play shows? Is he in a band? Does he do any recording?
Behringer makes decent, affordable gear. My preferred brand is far and away Line6, but to be frank they're way out of your stated price range, and maybe not the best starter.
His current gear is relevant. Many amps come with an overdrive feature built in, although the quality of it varies widely. What's he playing through?
The other thing to consider is signal chain. It's not a major concern, except insofar as if he's new to playing or electric it might be a bit overwhelming at first.
Assuming basic gear and no current effects, I would recommend shopping in this order for a general, all purpose setup:
Distortion
Overdrive
Delay
Reverb
Wah
Volume
Chorus
Flanger
...And the more specific and obscure effects below that (rotary, octavio, etc).
I would advise against compressors or noise gates to start with, unless he plays out and really needs them. Players have the habit of using those two effects in particular as a crutch to cover up sloppy playing; if he has a few years under his belt he'll probably be okay with them, but otherwise give them a miss for now.
The other considerations are pedal boards and power supplies. You can get adapters for any pedal to plug into the wall, but running off mains power can introduce unwanted artifacts in the tone -- generally, 9V batterys are preferred. And if he ends up with more than 4 or 5 pedals, a board to keep everything tidy is pretty much mandatory. You can buy them from the store, but if you're at all handy with a hammer and drill, you can probably build one yourself.
I'll be happy to answer any further questions you have.
EDIT -
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Daniel_
'd pick up a multi effects device (i.e. a digital one) if you can, then he'll have the option of trying all sorts.
There's all sorts of stuff you can do with chorus, phasing, reverb/delay and so on these days in quite small economic packages.
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I don't disagree with this advice; a multi-effects processor is a great option. Trouble is, they generally start at $150 or so, and if you want a good one you're looking more in the range of $500. Given the stated budget, a few Behringer or Danelectro pedals is a great way to let him explore tonal options on the cheap.