Adams was born in Lebanon in 1961, where his father served as Middle East correspondent for The Guardian, a United Kingdom-published national newspaper.
After two years spent teaching English in Yemen, Adams began his journalism career freelancing for local papers in the United States, while road-tripping across the country.
In 1993, he moved to Belgrade to cover the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia before returning to London in 1995 as a reporter for BBC World television.
He has covered Middle Eastern and world affairs extensively during his time as the BBC's defence correspondent following the 9/11 attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
On 5 October 2014, Adams and his TV crew came under attack from the Turkish police with tear gas near Kobane, No-one was hurt in the incident.