Tony Nguyen's family immigrated from Vietnam to the United States to escape the Vietnam War and communist government. They sought better financial opportunities and higher quality education. His family settled in the Little Saigon neighborhood of Westminster, California near other Vietnamese immigrants. His parents worked in a Vietnamese supermarket, with his mother as a cashier and his father as a butcher. The family practiced Buddhism at a local Vietnamese Buddhist temple that provided an important place for religious freedom and cultural traditions.