McKade Levi Marshall was born on Tuesday, September 4, 1984, at Hendrick Hospital in Abilene, Texas. Throughout his childhood and younger years he lived in Albany, Texas, where he spent many days at the Old Jail Art Center as a junior docent and on the basketball court preparing to become the next Larry Bird. He later moved to Abilene, where he graduated at the top of his class at Cooper High School. 

For the next six years McKade pursued collegiate endeavors, achieving his Bachelor of Business Administration and Masters of Business Administration at Hardin-Simmons University with a perfect 4.0 GPA and also serving as student body president during undergraduate studies. While in graduate school he decided a career as a business executive was out of the question after spending only three months at a local accounting firm. McKade decided to try something different and began working as a barista at a local coffee shop. As fate would have it, he was approached by a co-worker who knew of an upcoming local college production of “Medea” by Euripides. After auditioning, he was chosen for the leading role as Jason by director James Arrington. It was at this moment that he was permanently bitten by the acting bug. His performance garnered him a Best Lead Actor nomination through the university.