With a full-time electric motor business, Cox had started carving as a hobby in the late 1970s after attending his first decoy show in Virginia Beach, about an hour north of where he lives along the North Carolina coast.
Cox has won numerous Best of Show awards for his work, at events from New York to Charleston, South Carolina. and was the Master Carver in 2011. He is a five-time North Carolina state champion and won Best of Show at the Ward Foundation World Championship in 2006.