Nguyen-duy was born in Hue, Vietnam. Growing up within thirty kilometers of the demilitarized zone of the 18th Parallel, he describes hearing gunfire every day of his early life. In 1975 he immigrated to the United States as a political refugee.
Pipo has taken on many things in life in pursuit of his diverse interests. As a teenager in Vietnam, he competed as a national athlete in table tennis. He also spent some time during the mid 80’s living as a Buddhist monk in Northern India. In 1983 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at Carleton College. He then moved to New York City, where he worked as a bartender and later as a nightclub manager. While living in the East Village in the 80’s, or as Pipo describes, “the crux of creativity in New York,” and meeting people such as musician Don Cherry and artist Keith Haring, Pipo’s interests turned to art. In 1992 he earned a Master of Arts in Photography, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1996, both from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque.