Olive was born in Wollongong in 1962 and is a Bundjalung man.[2] Olive had a cooking segment on the ABC's Message Stick TV series[3] and later got his own TV cooking series, The Outback Cafe. He has released a cookbook, The Outback Cafe, based on the series.[4][1] In 2006 he won a Deadly Award for Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment.[5] Mark Olive hosts Australian reality competitive cooking show The Chefs' Line with chef Dan Hong and food writer Melissa Leong.