Randy Wayne White was born in Ashland, Ohio, and spent his early life on a small farm outside Pioneer, Ohio. His summers were spent in Rockingham, North Carolina, his mother's hometown. In the 1960s his family moved to Davenport, Iowa, where White attended Davenport Central High School and competed in baseball, football, and springboard diving. After graduating in 1968 he spent time in travel before settling in Southwest Florida in 1972. He worked for the Fort Myers News-Press for four years during which time he obtained a captain's license. He then bought a used charter boat and operated as a light-tackle fishing guide at the Tarpon Bay Marina on Sanibel Island for thirteen years.

White began writing novels while working as a fishing guide. His first seven novels were written under the pen name Randy Striker. After the federal government closed Tarpon Bay to powerboat traffic he became a full-time adventurer and writer.

White has traveled extensively and participated in a wide variety of adventures, including dog sledding in Alaska, helping to re-establish Little League baseball in Cuba, and ferrying Cuban refugees to safety during the Mariel boatlift.

St. Martin's Press published his first Doc Ford mystery novel, Sanibel Flats in 1990 with a three-book contract and option for the fourth. Dissatisfied with the money paid for and the scant promotion of his first three books, White signed with G.P. Putnam's Sons for the fourth book under much more favorable terms and has been with that publisher ever since.