Walker was educated at The Friends' School, Hobart and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology graduating with a Fellowship Diploma of Architecture.

Walker started his sports career when he played Australian rules football with the Melbourne Football Club from 1967 to 1972. He was a ruckman and defender who played 85 games and scored 23 goals. He played senior football at VFL level, never playing locally in Tasmania. After his foray in football he moved to cricket.

Walker then moved to cricket and played 70 first-class games for Victoria and 38 Tests for Australia, taking 138 wickets as a medium-fast bowler. He played in 29 ODI's between 1974 and 1981, including matches during World Series Cricket from 1977 to 1979. His strange bowling action, particularly the way he moved his feet, earned Walker the nickname of "Tangles" or "Tanglefoot".

Max Walker famous for his sporting exploits is also the author of 14 books with his sales exceeding 1 million copies. This includes seven Number 1 best sellers. His first book was Tangles (written with Neil Phillipson), was published in 1976 while his fourteenth book Caps, Hats and Helmets came out in 2006.

Once he retired from cricket, Walker became a big celebrity on television and radio. He appeared on the Sunday Footy Show as a panellist, and also hosted the Nine Network's Nine's Wide World of Sport program until it was cancelled in 1999. He was also a commentator for international cricket matches.

Walker is also a writer, and has written many light hearted books including The Wit Of Walker, How To Kiss A Crocodile and How To Puzzle A Python. Today, Walker is prominent on the public speaking circuit, and in 2005 made a rare TV appearance on the Nine Network's sports show Any Given Sunday, hosted by James Brayshaw, as well as ABC2's sports programme "Late Night Legends" featuring highlight of the 1974/75 Ashes series in which Walker played a prominent role.

Walker has also been parodied by The Twelfth Man, on the 1994 album Wired World of Sports II. It follows Walker through a day at his job at the Nine Network in which he is involved in an assault on co-host Ken Sutcliffe in order to increase his chances of being included on the cricket commentary team. Also, there is a reference to Walker's book publishing when on the album Billy Birmingham (as Walker) remarks, "Have you got my latest book, Alligators and Arseholes? What about Dingoes and Dropkicks?"

He is a supporter of the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League.

Married to Kerry Walker he has five children (three of them from a first marriage).

Walker is an avid collector of fountain pens and in fact uses one when writing the manuscripts for his books.