“I have a thing for girls in cowboy boots and Daisy Dukes,” Jason Maxim tweeted last week.

Now, the 29-year-old Augusta native and Los Angeles actor and entrepreneur is one of 20 men — a 50-50 mix of country boys and city slickers — vying for the heart of a lovely, self-proclaimed Southern belle.

“A lot of the other guys on the show were looking for love,” Maxim said. “I was kind of looking for a change and an adventure.”

The 2000 graduate of Cony High School will appear on Country Music Television’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” a reality dating series set to premiere July 14 at 8 p.m.

The show, which wrapped production earlier this month, is set in a small Alabama town and features Tennessee native Devin Grissom, a 22-year-old student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Maxim was born in Bangor. While in Augusta, he said he started studying tae kwon do at Allard’s Aerobic Tae Kwon Do.

Maxim’s mother, Becky, lives in Readfield, and his father, Michael, lives in Augusta.

Becky Maxim said when she first learned of the audition, she wasn’t sure whether it was a traditional acting gig or a reality show.

Now that she’s in the know, she thinks the show could give her son’s career a boost.

“I don’t know that he’s really into the reality TV thing, but what he is looking for is exposure,” she said. “I’m a proud mom because this is what he desires.”

“I have a very strong foundation of family, loyalty and trust, and that’s because of the way I was raised by my family in Maine,” Maxim said. “In L.A., there’s a lot of plastic. It’s hard to find loyalty and friendship.”

After high school, he went on to get a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and was on track to go to law school.

Before he got his degree, he said he was approached by a modeling agent while on a family trip in New York City.

“My mom said ‘No, you have to get your degree,’” Maxim said. “After college, I found out I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore, so I basically packed as many things in my car as I could and moved to California.”

He said he has lived in Southern California for seven years and in Los Angeles for the past two. Along with modeling, he is the co-founder of a small movie production company and operates a tanning salon he says caters to a celebrity clientele. He has also worked as an actor and stuntman.

His credits include bit parts in episodes of the now-canceled Fox hit series “The O.C,” CBS’s “NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service,” and USA’s “South of Nowhere.”

According to the show’s website, the men on “Sweet Home Alabama” will compete in challenges to win time with Grissom, who will eliminate competitors in each one-hour episode.

“It’s definitely up there with ‘The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette,’ but I think it’s better,” Maxim said. “There’s something fresh about it.”

He said having cameras trained on him 24/7 wasn’t difficult to adjust to — it was living in the same house with 19 other men from different backgrounds.

“At first, I was like, ‘I want to go home. What am I doing here?’ But the longer I stayed, the more I liked it. I had a blast,” Maxim said. “It ended up being way better than I expected.”

Michael Shepherd — 621-5662

mshepherd@mainetoday.com

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