A native of Inglewood, California, Jones attended St. Bernard High School where he played basketball and was recruited by the likes of Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and UC Santa Barbara, but ultimately decided to attend Loyola Marymount, where he was a ball boy in elementary school.

[5] Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Jones played professionally in Italy, France, Lebanon, Japan and South Korea from 1995 to 2001.

In 2009, Jones joined the coaching staff of Steve Alford at New Mexico, helping the Lobos to 52 wins in two seasons, including a school record 30-win campaign and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2010 and NIT bid in 2011, while coaching future NBA player Tony Snell.

Jones was hired by Cuonzo Martin at California in 2015, where he was part of a team that made an NCAA and NIT appearance, while also helping the Golden Bears to be the Pac-12's best defensive unit, ranking tops in the league in points per game allowed and field goal percentage allowed in 2015–16 and 2016–17.

[8] Off the court, Jones has appeared in movies such as Dope, The Wood, Benchwarmers and Brown Sugar and has been dubbed one of "College hoops' most interesting people" by ESPN in part due to his unique part-time acting career.