[4] After graduating from the California Institute of the Arts School of Film/Video, he decided he wanted to go into directing pornography and introduced himself to pornographic film director Veronica Hart.

Going against the predominant trends in adult video, McKai prefers to shoot features with a plotline and high production values rather than gonzo porn.

His influences include Andy Warhol, early "artistic" pornographic directors such as Alex de Renzy, The Dark Brothers, and Stephen Sayadian, as well as the aesthetic of alt porn websites such as SuicideGirls, BurningAngel, and GodsGirls.

He spent some time recovering from a heavy meth addiction, then opened a small post-production studio, hiring former pornographic actors and directors to help them transition out of the industry.

If I put on a hat, chaps, and spurs and made a cowboy-porn movie, it wouldn’t make me a real cowboy.”[2] Tristan Taormino, however, defended McKai's work as authentically based on his own lifestyle and sense of aesthetics, and views the idea of creating artistic porn as much more worthy than simply churning out product.