Just picked up a locked macbook

Welcome to the forums! To answer your question bluntly..... Yes and no. It all depends on which specific model you have that makes the level of difficulty regarding the unlock process. To get a better idea of what you're specifically looking at could you please provide the model number (e.g. A1375, MacBookPro2,7, etc.)? Also if you haven't already taken a browse around the site I encourage you to take a look over at the Blog section (located at the top of each page) and head over to the Apple EFI section and read over any amount of the articles that you'll find there just to sort of get a generic feel for what you're up against.

Now, to answer your question more thoroughly...

Each device is going to be different and be aware that you may encounter bugs/problems and other situations that nobody else has encountered. Be that the case, feel free to post about it here and we'll help to get you taken care of. Regarding your MacBook, you'll have 1 of 3 unlock tools that you'll need. There's the 8-Pin SOIC EEPROM chip style that looks like this

and you'll need one of these to interface with it


Or if you have a MacBook Air (or other model with separate interface) up to 2014 models then you're going to need to order a special tool (such as the MBA Easy Flash Tool available for purchase here on the site under the Shop tab) to interface with the special header located on the motherboard. Here are what these look like...




Or if you have a 2015 device or newer then you'll need an ever more specific tool because after 2014 Apple switched it up on us and made the header on the motherboards even smaller >.<

It's not a full detailed description on what you'll need to do but hopefully this will be enough to at least point you in the right direction

Cheers