Nugent, a native of Lawrence, Massachusetts, attended Ithaca College in upstate New York, where he played baseball, basketball, football, and track, and earned ten varsity letters. He graduated from Ithaca in 1936. During World War II, Nugent served in the United States Army Air Corps and attained the rank of captain. He worked as a fitness instructor for deploying officers, and later, as the director of entertainment of a military installation in Missouri.