He was first sent to study law but he then turned to science and attended classes at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris.
Despite financial trouble, he graduated in 1770 and thus became Docteur-Régent, and married Marie Claude Leredde shortly after.
During his years at the Academy, he published a few works of chemical analysis, including one in collaboration with the duke of La Rochefoucauld.
He eventually acquired the laboratory in rue Jacob which used to belong to the chemist Guillaume-François Rouelle and carried out his public courses there.
His most famous pupil was Antoine-François Fourcroy who later carried on Bucquet's work on natural history.