Maker left home at the age of seven to live with his uncle in northern Sudan. In 1994, at the age of nine, he fled from a refugee camp during the Sudanese Civil War. While 28 members of his family were killed during the conflict, he was able to escape to Egypt, and then permanently to the United States. He was granted refugee status by the United States when he was 16, and now lives and trains in Flagstaff, Arizona. Though his parents survived the civil war, at the time of the 2012 Olympics he had not seen them in 20 years. However he returned to South Sudan in 2013 and was reunited with his parents. Eight of his brothers and sisters were killed in the war.