Max's father, Dennis Max, is a restaurant owner in South Florida. Max attended Blair Academy in New Jersey and went on to graduate from the University of Chicago in 1998 with a B.A. in Law, Letters and Society and from Duke Law School with a J.D. in 2001. He was a summer associate at Fenwick & West.

In 2006, Max began development of a television pilot for Comedy Central, but the project was reportedly canceled after a dispute with Sony about feature film rights.

In September 2006, Simon Spotlight Publishing, a division of Simon & Schuster, announced that Max was contracted to release a book in January 2008, titled Assholes Finish First. Undisclosed delays pushed the release date to September 2010. He purportedly received a $300,000 advance from the publisher for Assholes Finish First, and released a revised and expanded edition of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell in January 2009.

Max was also the founder of an online company named Rudius Media. The company website stated that it was "dedicated to finding, publishing, managing and publicizing new and original content by unknown or under-promoted artists and writers." His blogging network included journalist and television host Mark Ebner, strategy writer Robert Greene, and actor/comedian Jamie Kennedy. Rudius Media closed its doors on November 1, 2009.

In 2008, The Hollywood Reporter announced that he was producing a movie based on his bestselling book, also titled I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Max detailed the process on a production blog hosted on the movie's website. Actor Matt Czuchry portrayed Tucker in the film. Despite the success of the book, the film was panned by critics, and earned $1.4 million at the box office on a $7 million budget. Max attributed this to oversights in marketing, but expressed hope it would find an audience on DVD.

Max was the facilitator of the website "Tard Blog", from 2002- 2003.

Max, along with George Ouzounian (known more commonly by his pen name, Maddox), is considered a founding author of the 21st century literary genre, "fratire." The term was introduced by The New York Times reporter Warren St. John in a 2006 article titled Dude, Here's My Book. The genre is characterized by masculine themes and could be considered the male equivalent of chick lit.

In 2003, Max posted on his website an account of his relationship with Katy Johnson, who was Miss Vermont in 1999. Johnson filed a lawsuit against Max claiming, among other things, an invasion of her privacy. In response to the lawsuit, a Florida state court judge issued an "unusual" order for Max not to write about Johnson, to use Johnson's first, full, or last name, to use the phrase "Miss Vermont" on his website, or to disclose any "information" or "stories" about Johnson. Legal experts called the decision "kooky" and "clearly a suppression of free speech." The ACLU intervened, claiming a breach of Max's First Amendment rights, which led to Johnson's voluntary dismissal, and Max's story was once again posted on his website.

In January 2006, Max posted a thread on his message board satirizing Anthony DiMeo, a young Philadelphia socialite for throwing a New Year's Eve party that did not turn out well. The number of partygoers that actually appeared greatly exceeded expectations, which resulted in the alcohol and food available for guests running out well before midnight. The over 700 young partygoers got unruly, two pieces of art were stolen, and the city police were called to disperse the crowd. DiMeo subsequently sued Max under the Violence Against Women Act contesting that some of the comments on Max's message board were libelous and represented criminal behavior. The lawsuit was subsequently dismissed under the Communications Decency Act, with U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell noting that although Max could be a "poster child for the vulgarity," the law must protect "the coarse conversation that, it appears, never ends on TuckerMax.com."

In May 2009, Max held a speaking engagement which was picketed by a feminist group at Ohio State University, who claimed that his writing "promoted a culture of rape." In August 2009, the North Carolina State University Women's Center held a silent protest of I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. The advertisements themselves were also vandalized in multiple cities and ultimately banned by the Chicago Transit Authority.