[1] He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, studying chemistry at first,[2] and subsequently rhetoric, and earned a bachelor's degree in 1984.
[1] After reading Andre Norton's Storm over Warlock, he became a fan of fantasy and science fiction.
[3] He has also written several stand-alone volumes, including the contemporary fantasies Frostwing, King of the Grey, and Dutchman, plus the heroic adventure The Janus Mask.
[3] He has also worked on novels based in the worlds of the computer games Warcraft and Diablo.
[3] Knaak lists Roger Zelazny, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Edgar Allan Poe as major influences,[1] and has even listed a few of his favorite fellow authors, those being Robert E. Howard, Glen Cook, L. Sprague de Camp, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Harry Turtledove, Jennifer Roberson, Laurell K. Hamilton, Harry Harrison, and Robert Sawyer.