Chris McQueen grew up in Austin, TX and started playing guitar and writing songs at the age of ten. After recording a great deal of his music himself he entered the studio on his thirteenth birthday to record seriously for the first time. Shortly thereafter he joined the popular blues/western-swing kid band RedHeaded Stepchild and through the help of lead guitarist Will Knaak began learning how to improvise and play with other musicians. Once in high school his interest in improvisation led Chris to begin taking jazz lessons and he joined his high school jazz band, The Westlake High School Jazz Ensemble, his sophmore, junior, and senior years. While at Westlake he earned frequent soloist awards at jazz competitions and earned the single guitar spot in the Texas All-State Jazz Band his junior and senior years. He also composed his first big band piece, "En Route", which was performed by his high school and published by Walrus Music.

In 2002 Chris entered the jazz guitar program at the University of North Texas in Denton with both music and academic scholarships. During his time at UNT he studied with guitar professor Fred Hamilton and was a member of the Two O'Clock Lab Band directed by Jim Riggs, the One O'Clock Lab Band directed by Neil Slater, and the L5 Electric Guitar Ensemble. He appears on recordings by all three of those groups as well as the first and second UNT Jazz Chamber albums, all of which (except the Two O'Clock) feature his own original music. With the One O'Clock Lab Band he toured Poland for two weeks in the Summer of 2005 and later New York, Pennsylvania, and Chicago. In the Fall of 2005 he was commissioned by Westlake High School in Austin to write the big band piece "Foe Destroyer" and later appeared as the guest artist at their final concert. "Foe Destroyer" was recorded by the One O'Clock Lab Band for the album Lab 2006, is published by Walrus Music, and remains a UNT favorite. Also during his time at UNT he performed in the Netherlands with the Matt Sawyer Jazz Orchestra at the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival.

After college Chris remained in the Dallas area for four more years being heavily involved in both the indie rock scene and the Gospel/jazz/fusion scene. He acted as lead guitarist, songwriter, manager, booker, and arranger for the rock band Oso Closo, which released two albums, one DVD, and toured nationally several times. Both of Oso Closo's albums feature Chris's orchestral arrangements. Oso Closo was chosen by the Dallas Theater Center to be a part of a unique production of The Who's "Tommy" that ran about 30 performances during September of 2008. Chris acted as the song arranger and musical director for Oso Closo's part of that production. In 2009 Oso Closo won the $10,000 first prize for their entry into the MyChipotle Video Contest. Chris co-wrote the winning song, recorded it, and played almost every instrument on it. Chris also remained active in the jazz/funk/fusion supergroup Snarky Puppy, recording albums and going on national tours. He started playing in Myron Butler's Levi (formerly Kirk Franklin's God's Property) and continued jamming, playing gigs and recording with Dallas musicians such as Robert "Sput" Searight, Bobby Sparks, Shaun Martin, Gino Iglehart, Bernard Wright, RC Williams, Lamont Taylor, Daniel Jones, and Wes Stephenson. In 2010 Chris received a nomination for the Dallas Observer Music Award for best instrumentalist.

When Oso Closo broke up in early 2010, Chris and former Oso-mate Daniel Garcia formed Foe Destroyer, which has since played at SXSW as well as many other venues and festivals in Texas, Louisiana, New York, and Philadelphia. They made some initial recordings with producer Jason Cupp (Good Old War, Maps & Atlases, Casts Spells, Rilo Kiley) and will be finishing their debut album soon. Chris is currently living in Austin with his wife Erin, a photographer and musician.