He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the UCLA School of Engineering in 1982, after attending the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Nicholas earned a master’s degree in 1985 and PhD. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 1998. His doctoral advisor was Henry Samueli. His doctoral dissertation on “Architectures, Optimization Techniques, and VLSI Implementations for Direct Digital Frequency Synthesizers” became the basis for the development of the chip that launched Broadcom.

Nicholas’ sister Marsalee (born 1962) was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend in 1983, while Nicholas was in graduate school. Nicholas helped his mother and stepfather—Marcella and Robert Leach—found Justice for Homicide Victims, Inc., a non-profit organization that supports the families of murder victims.

Nicholas married in 1987; he and his former wife Stacey, a former electrical engineer, have three children, Brett, Matthew, and Shelby. Nicholas is now divorced and lives in Newport Coast, California.

After graduating from UCLA in the 1980s, Nicholas worked at TRW in Redondo Beach, where he met Dr. Henry Samueli, his future business partner who also was a professor of engineering at UCLA. Nicholas later moved to PairGain Technologies in Cerritos, California, where he was director of Microelectronics. He left PairGain in 1991 to start Broadcom Corporation with Samueli.

Nicholas founded Broadcom with Henry Samueli in the spare bedroom of Nicholas’ Redondo Beach condominium in 1991. Each invested $5,000 of his own money to get the business off the ground. They took the company public in 1998.

Nicholas retired from Broadcom in 2003, ostensibly to work on his marriage.

In 2004, Nicholas announced a $10-million gift to St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in Orange County and the formation of a partnership with the University of California, Irvine Henry Samueli School of Engineering to explore the application of technology to enhance learning. In addition, Nicholas provides St. Margaret scholarships to students from Santa Ana.

Nicholas and his Foundation have been a strong supporter of Habitat for Humanity, helping to build Gordon’s House in honor of Rev. Gordon Yeaton, an Episcopal priest and Habitat for Humanity board member who died in 2007. The Foundation has also supported Habitat’s Homes for Heroes, a neighborhood in San Juan Capistrano for disabled veterans and surviving families of veterans who gave their lives in service.

Nicholas established the first-ever American Heritage Bowl Game for Historically Black Colleges, co-sponsored by the Navy and Marine Corps. It was held in August 2007 at the stadium at Cal State Fullerton and broadcast worldwide on ESPN and armed forces networks.

Partnering with retired Orange County Superior Court Judge Jack Mandel, Nicholas in 2008 opened his first Nicholas Academic Center in downtown Santa Ana, California. Nicholas pledged $10 million over 20 years to the project. The centers provide a safe and nurturing school environment to help underprivileged students realize their educational goals. The second center opened in 2009 on the campus of Valley High School in Santa Ana. The first graduating class consisted of 24 high school seniors who received scholarships to leading four-year colleges and universities, including UCLA, Allegheny College, Denison University, UC San Diego, UC Davis and Cal State Fullerton.

In April 2008, he voluntarily checked himself into a Betty Ford alcohol-rehabilitation program and completed treatment at Cliffside Malibu.

Nicholas and other Broadcom executives were indicted in June 2008 for stock fraud and options backdating. At the same time, Nicholas was also indicted on drug charges. The charges caused considerable scandal, and were the subject of much speculation in the press.

The Center, which opened in May 2009, provides professional commercial kitchen space at an average rate of $20/hour and based on a sliding scale according to financial need. The incubator is home to more than 30 entrepreneurs and has launched numerous successful restaurants, catering operations and specialty food companies.

Judge Cormac J. Carney threw out the stock fraud and options backdating charges in December 2009. The drug charges were also dropped in January 2010. The Judge, in dismissing the charges, accused the prosecution of a “shameful” campaign of witness intimidation aimed at securing unjustified convictions.

In August 2018, Nicholas was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of drug trafficking after a variety of drugs, including marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and ecstasy, were found in his hotel suite. In August 2019, he pleaded no contest to two felony drug possession charges; he agreed to donate $1 million to a drug treatment and rehabilitation program, to perform 250 hours of community service, and to go to drug counseling. In exchange, the prosecution dismissed five more serious drug trafficking charges and did not seek a prison sentence.