Julian McMahon was the second of three children. He studied law at the University of Sydney, but he became bored with his classes after his first year and began a career in modeling, working primarily in commercials. In 1987, he headed off for print modeling assignments in Los Angeles, New York, Milan, Rome, Paris, and other international fashion centers. His appearance in a TV commercial promoting jeans in his home country made him popular enough to be cast as the lead in an Australian "Dynasty"-like series, in which he played a wealthy heir. After working for 18 months on the series, he starred in "Home and Away" (1988), another successful series, where he won a best actor award from a national magazine.

McMahon later performed on stage, appearing in a musical version of "Home and Away" in Britain as well as in "Love Letters" in Sydney and Melbourne. After a lead role in the feature film Wet and Wild Summer! (1992) (which also starred Elliott Gould), he went to Los Angeles to read for American projects.

In 1992, he was cast as Ian Rain on NBC's daytime drama "Another World" (1964). Two years later, he left to appear in various plays in Los Angeles. He also appeared in the feature films "Women in Control" and _"Magenta" (1996)_ before landing his role on "Profiler" (1996).

In his free time, McMahon enjoys surfing, biking, and "cooking anything" (especially roasts, pastas and ethnic cuisine). He is a fan of baseball, football and basketball, and he collects classic books.

- imdb.com