Max Hornfeck was born in Verona, New Jersey on January 13, 1874 to Hermann Heinrich Hornfeck, a manufacturer, and Anna Kathrine Cimiotti. Hermann Heinrich was born in Gera, Thuringia on February 5, 1839 and immigrated to the United States in 1860. He married Anna Kathrine Cimiotti, a native of Vienna, on February 5, 1866.
During the 1896–97 season Max Hornfeck played exhibition games with the Montclair Athletic Club ice hockey team against opponents from New York City and New Jersey, as well as against Queen's University and an All-Baltimore aggregation. His younger brothers Henry and Gus were also members of the team. All three of the Hornfeck brothers were of diminutive stature in an ice hockey playing context. Hornfeck played two seasons with the Montclair AC in the AAHL before he joined the New York Athletic Club for the 1899–1900 season. On the New York Athletic Club forward line he teamed up with newly acquired Canadian right wingerTom Howard, a former Stanley Cup champion with the Winnipeg Victorias. Hornfeck played four seasons with the New York AC without being able to win the AAHL championship. Before the 1903–04 AAHL season Hornfeck, Howard, Charlie Clarke and John Carruthers of the New York AC jumped ship, and along with forward Kenneth "Kay" Gordon and goaltender Harold "Buster" Hayward of the St. Nicholas Hockey Club they formed a new team called the New York Wanderers which took the place of the St. Nicholas HC in the AAHL for the 1903–04 season. The new club was successful at its first try at the championship title as the Wanderers finished at the top of the league table in 1903–04 after having defeated the Brooklyn Crescents 3 goals to 1 on March 4, 1904. Hornfeck played four more seasons in the AAHL before he retired at the end of the 1907–08 season.
Playing style
Max Hornfeck relied much upon his speed to create scoring chances, and he also used his fast feet on the defensive side of the puck breaking up scoring chances for the opponents by overtaking them and lifting their sticks. He did not have a big shot significative of a stand-out goal scorer, but he could nonetheless score a fair amount of goals on account of his rushing and dodging abilities.
