yes it does
well, actually character studio is installed when you install 3ds max, it has full funcionality but it will run just for 30 day, after that you have to buy the license to keep it working.
As for how do you access it from the 3ds max UI, well, go to the create panel and then click on the "system" icon, you'll see several buttons on that panel, click where it says biped, and as soon as you do it, you'll be prompTed to chosse if you want to run character studio in trial mode or in full version mode, click the trial mode option, (unless you have 1,000 bucks sitting on your bank account), and you'll be ready to use it.
Character studio is mainly, an animation tool, it's a group of bones already rigged for you,(so you don't have to pass hours on that painfull proces), and almost ready for animation, you still have to customize the skeleton according to your needs and skin your mesh to the biped skeleton.
But if you are willing to expend some money in an animation tool for 3ds max, i would choose Motion Builder instead, a lot more powerfull and almost the same price.
I'm not an expert on 3ds max yet, but i do have experience working with it and i'm pretty familiar with it, i have modeled several characters and other stuff already and i do have some experience with animation and fx on max, so if i can help you in something, just ask and i'll try my best.
below is the character that i'm working on right now.