The chain was founded by Curt Bergfors (27 February 1949 - 8 May 2022[1]) and Britta Fredriksson in Gällivare, Sweden, in 1968.

[2] Three years later Landmark Group was operating three Max restaurants in Dubai, where the menu was modified to exclude bacon.

The first restaurant in Norway opened on May 11, 2011[4] followed by the first in Denmark on March 1, 2013, and in Poland September 1, 2017.

[9] Max was the first hamburger restaurant in Sweden to outcompete McDonald's restaurants, which happened in 1991 in Umeå and Luleå, where McDonald's (who arrived later in northern Sweden than in Sweden's major cities) in fact closed their restaurants before returning a few years later.

In 2007, the popularity of Max forced the McDonald's in Skellefteå, Piteå and, again, in Luleå out of business.