Maxim Leonidovich Leonidov was born into a family of actors of the Leningrad Academic Comedy Theater.

He was the son of Lyudmila Lyulko (July 10, 1923 - October 25, 1967) and one of the pioneers in theater[1] Leonid Yefimovich Leonidov, whose real name was Shapiro (March 27, 1927 - April 30, 1996).

In 1983, he graduated from the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts, under the tutelage of Arkady Katsman and Lev Dodin.

He served in the army, being a member of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Leningrad Military District, along with Nikolai Fomenko and Yevgeny Oleshev.

Later that year, he became one of the founders of the popular Sekret beat-quartet (Maxim Leonidov, Nikolai Fomenko, Andrei Zabludovsky, Alexei Murashov).

[7] The band's membership has remained stable since 1997, except when their first drummer Evgeny Lependin moved to Moscow to work with Vladimir Presnyakov Jr., and his place was taken by a young musician named Yuri Sonin.