Kepnes was born in
Boston.[4] He attended the University of Massachusetts to become a history teacher and graduated in 2003.[5] At 23, he had never left the
United States[4] but in 2005 he took a trip to
Thailand.[6][7] The trip convinced Kepnes to quit his job, finish his
MBA, and begin traveling the world and blogging about his experiences.[8][9][10]
Kepnes' first book, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day: Travel Cheaper, Longer, Smarter, was published in 2013 by
Penguin.[11] A second edition was published in 2015 and was a New York Times bestseller.[12] He used an
initial coin offering to crowdfund his eBook Nomadic Matt's Guide to Backpacking Europe in 2018.[13] In July 2019, Kepnes published his memoir, Ten Years a Nomad: A Traveler's Journey Home.[14]
Kepnes has traveled to more than 100 countries.[5]