He attended local Catholic elementary and secondary schools before graduating with a bachelor's degree from La Roche College.
He began writing articles on various sex-related topics for Sex Vibe, an occasional magazine published by AIDS Project Los Angeles.
That same year, Adams began writing a monthly column for the company's Web site in which he reported on industry events, technology, scandals, and other newsworthy topics.
Adams' first published mainstream work was a portrait of gay adult film agent and former rock promoter David Forest, which appeared in Genre magazine in October 1999.
Adams also began writing for Unzipped magazine (formerly Advocate Classifieds) in 1998, contributing articles, reviews, and interviews with gay porn stars.
His second edition as editor featured Raging Stallion Studios performer François Sagat on its cover and was published December 2006.
Adams is at work on book titled It Just Happened, an oral history of the gay adult film industry.
Adams' growing familiarity with adult film production, a by-product of his work reporting from gay porn sets, soon led to writing and directing duties.
In early 2004, Adams directed his first credited gay porn scenes, including the film Shooters from MSR Videos.
Adams replaced Scott Masters, the award-winning director and co-founder of Studio 2000 who retired after selling the production house.
McKay announced that Adams would manage all the studio's productions, while adult film performer and director Chad Donovan would handle talent development.