Nick Holt attended high school at Bellarmine College Preparatory in San Jose, California, where he played football and baseball and graduated in 1981. He attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, where he played linebacker and lettered for four years for the Tigers. In his senior season of 1985, Holt was an All-American honorable mention, Pacific's MVP and a team captain. He graduated from UOP in 1986 with a bachelor's degree in political economics.