Born in Berry, New South Wales on 21 September 1921 of Norwegian descent, Jorgenson started playing rugby league after he left school at 16.

After the regular kicker Pat Devery missed three attempts, Jorgenson took over and scored all of the team's points in the 13–9 victory comeback after trailing 0–9.

He had enormous success with this new method and some statistics include: In 1945 and 46 he was a regular in state representative sides and captained New South Wales in the fixtures of 1946 against Queensland and against the visiting British Lions.

Jorgenson was then selected for and made captain of the Australian Test side of 1946 for the first post-World War II Ashes series.

The selectors felt that the captaincy pressure affected Jorgenson's kicking style, a possibility supported by the fact that he landed only one goal in the first Test from six attempts.