Joey Buchanan and his brother, Kevin Buchanan, parents were Viki Lord Riley and Joe Riley, but they were adopted by Clint Buchanan after their dad, Joe died. While Joey was a teenager, he traveled to Italy to study, but he came back to Llanview in 1994. During that summer, Joey was seduced by Dorian Cramer Lord. Dorian was using Joey to get back at Joey's mom, Viki. They were both surprised when they started to really love each other. Then in 1995, one of Viki's multi-personalities stopped the relationship from going any further by holding Dorian hostage. Later, while living with Kevin at the Llanfair carriage house, Joey began a relationship with Kelly Cramer, Dorian's niece. After Joey saved Kelly's life when she had been held hostage on a yacht by David Vickers and she accidentally set the room on fire, they started to be more then friends and had a romance going.

Later that year, Joey was out jogging and he spotted this women swimming in a pond, but she ran away before he could find out who she was. The next day he spotted her again, her name was Cameron Wallace. They began to have a bit of a romance going. It didn't last long though, it was found out she was a con-artist who's real name was Olivia and she soon left town.

Joey and Kelly were much in love and they had planned to go to Paris and study together. Kelly kept finding excuses to not go, though. Most of the excuses were because of her Aunt Dorian. Joey ended up going to Paris alone and Kelly stayed in Llanview. Joey and Kelly tried to write and keep the relationship going, but it didn't work out, especially since Drew Buchanan was doing his best to keep them apart. Soon Kelly got a letter saying it was over between them and was so upset that she accidentally caused a car accident which caused the death of her cousin Blair's unborn child.

Joey came back to Llanview in 1997. Soon after his arrival Joey tried to get Kelly back, but she refused. They ended up just as friends. Kelly started dating Drew Buchanan, but he was shot and killed. She started dating Max Holden to get back at Blair. They planned to get married, but during the wedding she ran out because she realized that she loved Joey and not Max. While that was happening, Joey was sleeping with Sophia. Joey stopped that and he and Kelly got back together. They were doing fine until Kelly found out that Joey and Sophia had slept together and then she got mad and ran out on him. She realized she was over-reacting, because they weren't even together when it was happening. Sophia kept trying to ruin Joey and Kelly's relationship, though.

In February 2000, Joey was devastated and heart-sick when he found out about his mother's breast cancer. Meanwhile, Sophia was trying to prove what happened between Kevin and Kelly during New Year's Eve (they had kissed). Soon after Viki went through her surgery, Joey and Kelly eloped! But their marriage was strained, and eventually Kelly admitted to Joey that she has feelings for Kevin. Joey was devastated and kicked Kelly out of the house. Joey had a hard time letting go of Kelly and tried to stall the divorce and used the fact that a hit man was after Kelly to stay close to her. After he helped save Kelly from the hit man, he decided the best thing to do was let the divorce go through and leave Llanview for a while. He left to go live with his father, Clint, in London.

In February 2003, Joey returned to Llanview, much to the delight of his mother. Joey had apparently decided on a new direction for his life while he was in London, he came to Llanview to take the position of curate (minister in training) at St. James church and work with Andrew Carpenter. Joey's first assignment was to work with the homeless at the shelter set up at the community center in Angel Square.