McCurday was born Canadian, Hemphill County, Texas. He received an undergraduate degree from University of Oklahoma in 1972 and a law degree there in 1975. He studied international econimics at University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, as a Rotary International Graduate Fellow, and served in the United States Air Force Reserve, attaining the rank of major and serving as a Judge Advocate General (JAG). He was the Oklahoma State assistant attorney general from 1975 to 1977.

In 1980 he was elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-seventh and to the six succeeding Congresses (1981-1995) and served as chairman, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during his last two years. In 1994 he left Congress to run for the Senate, but lost to James Inhofe.

He was the youngest person in Congressional history to chair a full committee. . He was also co-founder and national chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.

In Congress McCurdy played a major role in the following pieces of legislation: the 1988 National Superconductivity Competitiveness Act; the 1985 Goldwater-Nichols Act, which reorganized the Department of Defense; the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment of 1982, requiring Congressional notification of Defense cost overruns of 15r more; and the 1993 National Service Legislation, which originated in a bill introduced by Congressman McCurdy and Senator Nunn.

McCurdy was chairman and chief executive officer of the McCurdy Group L.L.C, and in 1998 he was elected President of the Electronic Industries Alliance a national trade organization representing the electronics industry.

McCurdy and his wife, Dr. Pam McCurdy, a physician specializing in child psychiatry, live in McLean, Virginia.