Nils Hognestad was born on July 16, 1984 in Bergen, Norway. He was named after his grandfather (on his mother's side). As a child, his family moved to London, England and later moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Becoming interested in acting very young, he started taking acting classes and got his first agent at just 10 years old.

In 2006, he graduated from Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Performance. After graduating from Ryerson, he received a Classical Acting Diploma from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in United Kingdom.

Nils made his television debut playing Charles Bruder, in the made-for-TV movie Blood in the Water (2009). When he is not busy acting himself, he's an instructor at the Vancouver Acting school (Canada).