After playing college football for Washington University in St. Louis, he was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round of the 1938 NFL draft.
Bukant played college football for the Washington University Bears, where he earned two-time all-Midwest and all-Missouri Valley Conference honors.
After being inactive with an injury throughout the entire 1941 season, Bukant was traded to the Chicago Cardinals on July 26, 1942, in exchange for halfback Hugh McCullough.
After the 1943 NFL season ended, Bukant joined the United States Navy in order to serve in World War II.
[6] He was transferred again to Camp Peary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in August 1944,[7] where he played on the service team in 1944.