Maximilien Poullein was born on April 28, 1983, in Lille, France. Two separate encounters had a profound impact on his decision to pursue a career in acting.
The first encounter was a screening of "The Running Man" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which he watched on a Sunday morning at the age of six. This experience left a lasting impression on his love for American cinema, marking a significant turning point in his early years.
The second encounter was his role as César in the Marcel Pagnol play, which he performed at the age of ten. This experience convinced him that acting was his calling and that he wanted to make a living as an actor.
From that point on, Max dedicated himself to studying drama, taking classes until the age of 18. He then joined the English-speaking theatre company Angellier while studying English at University Lille 3.
During his time with Angellier, Max performed in various roles, including Gibbs in Harold Pinter's "The Hothouse" in 2002, René in the original play "Fool's day" by Laurent Thiry in 2003, and Jack "Ernest" Worthing in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest" in 2004.
After completing seven years of drama classes from 1997 to 2004, Max moved to Paris in July 2005. He began to take on roles in short independent films, including a cheating boyfriend in Alexandre Lefebvre's "Dolly" and a stalker in Julien Le Goff's "Cache-Cache". He also appeared in long-feature movies such as "Entre ses mains" (2005) and "Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas" (2006).
In 2007, Max portrayed Jimmy Jones in Frederic Eger's short film "When Ronny met Cindy?!", the director's second short film.
