Professor McChesney received his J.D. from the University of Miami and Ph.D. (economics) from the University of Virginia, after studying at the Institut d'Etudes des Sciences Politiques (“Sciences Po”) in Paris. He practiced law in Washington, D.C., and then joined the Federal Trade Commission, where he was Associate Director for Policy and Evaluation. Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern, he was Professor of Law at Cornell University (1997-99); and Robert T. Thompson Professor of Law and Business, as well as Professor of Economics, at Emory University (1983-97). He has also taught at the University of Chicago, and twice as professeur invité in the Diplôme d'Études Approfondies program at the Université d'Aix-Marseille III.

He published dozens of articles in both economics and law journals on a variety of economics- and business-related subjects. His book, Money for Nothing: Politicians, Rent Extraction and Political Extraction (Harvard University Press, 1997) was widely and favorably reviewed. His Property Rights: Cooperation, Conflict and Law (Princeton University Press, co-edited with Terry L. Anderson) was published in 2003. He published three other books: The Causes and Consequences of Antitrust: The Public Choice Perspective (co-edited with William F. Shughart II, University of Chicago Press, 1995); Economic Inputs, Legal Outputs: The Role of Economists in Modern Antitrust (John Wiley & Sons, 1998); Antitrust Law: Interpretation and Implementation (co-authored with Charles J. Goetz, Michie/Lexis, 1998). He also taught at the Centro di Formazione e Studi in Naples, and at the Russian Ministry of Justice's Program of Instruction in American Law in Moscow. He served on the editorial boards of three journals: Public Choice, Managerial and Decision Economics, and the Journal des Économistes et des Études Humaines.