Max is a man is many mysteries, yet at the same time he can be fairly obvious. He is somewhat power hungry, yet he isn't greedy by any means. He is, however, the more big jerk of the group by his rivalry with Taro. He and Taro are frequently butting heads all because they're both interested in the same person; That unlucky person being Tenka. However, when you get past his overall personality, and his typical bully appearance, one can see he is hiding something, something that would completely turn him into a wreck if anybody found out. He was raised in a family with an older brother who constantly picked on him, and by the time the older brother moved out, he was finally safe from him, until years later at about a year before the present, he found his house on fire and a note from his brother saying "He's Returned". Or so he thought. In reality, this note was from none other than Jack, who burnt down his house because he had found the place already dead and didn't want any attention drawn to Max since his brother made it so it looked like Max did the crime, and caught the entire thing on camera for Max to see. Jack explains he managed to get into the Real World a year early because his Digivice in particular had actually sent him back in time by a year when he used it. With him and Jack as partners, he gained a bit of a selfish personality, but has yet to find out where his brother is, but by the time he did the Real World ended up being destroyed before he could finish the job, as he fled to the Digital World as he felt somewhat like he used to before having met Jack. Nevertheless, that won't stop him from being the Team Jerk a lot of times.
Max also secretly admits he feels like he's unworthy of anything. He hardly believed Jack's story about how his home was destroyed, and secretly wonders if he is truly any real "hero" as he's led on to be. Every time he attempts to lead the team on his own, trying to encourage the group that they don't need Taro in situations in which Taro does some rather questionable acts, he showcases that he has very poor leadership skills, to the point Jack is the first Digimon partner to be Degenerated straight to a Digi-Egg due to his failures. It only begins to go downhill for him there, as Tenka shows practically no sign of any return for Max's own feelings, which he's personally upset about since he's known her longer than Taro did (Or, at least he thinks he does). When it's revealed Tenka ends up with Taro later on despite what had happened between Taro and nearly everyone else. Max, realizing how helpless he is in situations, just wishes to understand why he's not cut out for anything useful. His own acknowledgment of his failures and his tragedies in the past is what allows him to digivolve Jack into Ultimate, and eventually Max stops being a jerk almost entirely.