Max Thieriot was born in Los Altos Hills, California in 1988. He is the great-great grandson of Michael Henry de Young, who co-founded the San Francisco Chronicle in 1865. Thieriot was raised in Occidental, California and he graduated middle school from Sonoma Country Day School in 2002. In 2006 he graduated from El Molino High School. He started acting when he took an improvisation class and modeled for GAP. He was also in two short films before performing in his first feature film role Catch That Kid (2004).