His mother Our Le was an actress & dancer & his father Xuan Phat an actor, writer & producer within South Vietnam. A personal left Vietnam inside April 1975 as it fell to Communist Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army forces. It arrived inside Guam, then the personal was moved to a camp within Arkansas, and eventually by using the assistance of a Methodist church they relocated to to Saint Louis, Missouri.

Fallowing Nguyen graduated senior high school, he moved to Southern California & attended Orange Coast College and majored in communications.

He manufactured his acting debut in Magnum P.I. portraying a Cambodian freedom fighter, in the episode "Crouching".

He has been the regular on the television series 21 Jump Street and V.I.P., and has guest-starred on a number of other series.

Trivia
Nguyen & his married woman, previous actress/model Angela Rockwood-Nguyen, use at times move in the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation since the car accident left Rockwood-Nguyen a quadriplegic on September 3, 2001. This accident claimed a life of Vietnamese-Our contries actress Thuy Trang, a member of the original cast of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Practices many martial arts including Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, the Filipino-depending styles of Kali and Escrima, and Jeet Kune Do.