From 2001 to 2003, Brooks was a member of the writing team at Saturday Night Live.

Brooks is the author of The Zombie Survival Guide, a book published in 2003 (ISBN 1-4000-4962-8). The book explains how to survive an impending zombie apocalypse. The book touches on what it describes as pop cultural myths about zombies. The book was later followed up in 2009 by The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (ISBN 978-0-7156-3815-6), a graphic novel depicting several of the events detailed in the book's latter section.

Brooks' book An Oral History of the Zombie War, which deals with the war between the human race and zombies, was released on September 12, 2006. Paramount Pictures has acquired the movie rights; Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment will produce the film. In the October 2006 issue of Fangoria Magazine, Brooks stated that he will not be writing the screenplay for the motion picture, as he feels he is not an accomplished enough screenwriter to "do it right" (J. Michael Straczynski is writing the screenplay).October 2006 issue of Fangoria Magazine,

Brooks has also written the introduction for the hardcover collected edition of Dynamite Entertainment's zombie miniseries Raise the Dead released in 2007.

The New Dead, a 2010 anthology of previously unpublished zombie stories edited by Christopher Golden, contains an additional World War Z story titled Closure, Limited.

Brooks has a number of other creative credits. Max Brooks (I) As an actor, he has been seen in Roseanne, To Be or Not to Be, Pacific Blue, and 7th Heaven. He also has a career voicing animation; his voice has been featured in the animated shows Batman Beyond, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and Justice League. In 2010, he wrote the IDW comic book mini-series Hearts & Minds.

Brooks was born in New York City, the son of director, producer, and actor Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. He is a 1994 graduate of Pitzer College. His wife, Michelle, is a screenwriter, and the couple have a son, Henry.