Max Forckenbeck was born in Münster in the Prussian province of Westphalia. From 1838 he studied law at the University of Giessen in Hesse, where he joined the Corps Teutonia fraternity. He completed his studies at the Frederick William University in Berlin. As a law graduate, he serveded first as a Referendar from 1842, from 1847 as an Assessor at the municipal court in Glogau, Silesia. Upon the March Revolution of 1848, he acted as president of the Glogauer Konstitutioneller Verein. In 1849, he received his admission as attorney-at-law in Mohrungen, East Prussia.
