Nguyen was born in Danang, Vietnam (at that point, part of South Vietnam). He and his family fled the country shortly before the Fall of Saigon. He never received any formal training in filmmaking, but instead grew up watching the films of director Alfred Hitchcock, including 1958’s Vertigo and 1963’s The Birds. Nguyen went on to be a software salesman in Silicon Valley. He first picked up a camera in 1999.

In 2003, he directed the low-budget romantic film Julie and Jack. In 2005, he directed the science fiction thriller Replica, inspired by Vertigo, but it was not released until 2017; Nguyen blamed the outcome on the expensive storyboarding process and his casting decisions. Nguyen’s popularity as a director rose in 2010 with the release of the film Birdemic: Shock and Terror. He was inspired to write the script for the film while spending time relaxing in Half Moon Bay, California, and much of the filming took place in the area surrounding the community. The film’s under $10,000 budget was financed with his own income. Nguyen has cited The Birds and An Inconvenient Truth (2006) as inspiration for directing Birdemic.

During and since its release, Birdemic has been frequently considered to be one of the worst films of all time. Birdemic was featured as a movie riffed on by the cast of RiffTrax both as a standalone product and during one of their live shows, drawing further attention to the film and Nguyen. In February 2012, Nguyen began production on a sequel to the film, entitled Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. The film was released in 2013 to negative reviews.

In a 2016 Vice interview, Nguyen said that he is hoping to eventually make Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle, which would be his last film in the Birdemic series. Nguyen attempted to crowdfund for the film, first launching a project on Indiegogo which only raised $596 of its $500,000 goal and later on Kickstarter only raising $230 of its $200,000 goal.

Due to the gain in popularity with Birdemic’s showing through RiffTrax, Nguyen agreed to allow RiffTrax to give a similar treatment to his unreleased Replica. The un-riffed version was available through RiffTrax in January 2017 and the riffed version was released on February 10, 2017.