Vaughn was born in Indianapolis to father Derek and mother Veronica Taylor, and attended Arlington High School there.

[3] In his senior year at Arlington Vaughn averaged 22.3 points, 4 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.5 steals per game, being selected in the All-State First Team.

[11][12] At Harmony, Vaughn averaged 17 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, and was coached by Rodney Crawford, a former player of the Cincinnati Bearcats.

[2] As a member of the 2005 high school class, Vaughn was recruited by Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State and Purdue.

[13] At Cincinnati, Vaughn chose jersey number 5 and made his debut on November 10, 2006 against Howard, playing 22 minutes and scoring 7 points.

[14] He made his first start on November 21 against Wofford, and he scored a career-high 33 points in 38 minutes of play, shooting 12/24 from the field (9/17 on three-pointers).

[14] He then scored 25 points together with 9 assists (a career high) and 6 steals against NC State on December 23, and was named Rookie of the Week for the second time in the season.

[14] At the end of his freshman season, Vaughn was the team leader in points (14.5), assists (3.5) per game and steals per game (1.8);[15] He recorded the second-best scoring average for a Cincinnati freshman behind Dontonio Wingfield, who had averaged 16 points in the 1993–94 season,[2] and he was selected as a member of the All-Big East Rookie Team.

[17] He then scored a new career high of 36 points against Coastal Carolina on November 6, shooting 12/19 from the field (9/15 on three-pointers) and 3/5 from the free throw line.

[20] On February 4, in a game against Notre Dame, Vaughn scored 34 points, a season high and the second best mark of his career, making 19 of 22 free throws.

[22] Vaughn entered his senior season as a preseason First-team All-Big East selection, and he was included in the John R. Wooden Award watchlist.

On March 17, during the 2010 National Invitation Tournament, Vaughn became Cincinnati's all-time leader in assists and 3-pointers made against Weber State.

In August 2010, Vaighn signed a professional contract with the Polpharma Starogard Gdański of the Polish Basketball League.

Vaughn went back to Polpharma Starogard Gdański for the 2013–14 preseason, but left before playing any official match, and signed for Atomerőmű SE of the Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A, the first level of Hungarian basketball, in late September 2013.

In December 2015, Vaughn joined Pro B team Boulazac Basket Dordogne, replacing Matt Carlino.