Hollioake was born in Melbourne in 1971 and grew up in the mining town of Ballarat, where his family had lived for five generations. His father, an engineer, had played cricket for local sides, but Hollioake showed a preference for Australian Rules Football while attending St Patrick's College, Ballarat. The family moved to England in 1983 where Hollioake attended St George's College in Weybridge.

Although born in Australia, both Adam and brother Ben learned their cricket at the Hong Kong Cricket Club Junior Gappers during the time their father John was working in Hong Kong before moving to UK. Hollioake was offered a contract by Surrey in 1989 and made his first-class debut for the county in August 1993. He was awarded his county cap in 1995, during a season in which he scored 1099 runs and took 21 wickets. He was described as an all-rounder with "aggressive batting and inventive medium-pace allsorts" and began to share captaincy duties for Surrey with Alec Stewart in 1996. He captained Surrey from 1997 until 2003, and led them to victory in the County Championship in 1999, 2000 and 2002. He went on to claim 9 trophies in his time as Surrey captain making him one of the most successful 1st class captains of all time.

Hollioake made his England debut in two One Day International matches against Pakistan in August 1996. He led the England A team on their tour of Australia in 1996–97 and was man of the series in the home One Day International series against Australia in May 1997, scoring the winning runs in all three games. He made his test debut, playing alongside his brother Ben, against Australia in August 1997, scoring 45 runs in the first innings and taking two wickets.

Although his test career lasted only four matches in 1997 and at the beginning of 1998, Hollioake achieved greater success in One Day Internationals, playing in 35 matches from 1996 to 1999. He captained the side to victory in the 1997 Sharjah Cup, England's first tournament success for ten years. Injuries and a loss of form saw him lose the captaincy after 14 matches.

After 173 first-classes matches for Surrey, Hollioake retired from cricket at the end of the 2004 season. He made an appearance in the 2005 Asian tsunami appeal charity match, taking a hat-trick,^[11] and made a brief return to Twenty20 cricket in 2007, playing in eight matches for Essex.