[5] She graduated from Framingham High School in 2005,[6][7] and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations with a minor in Dance from Hofstra University in 2009.

[8][9] In 2011, while bartending in Boston at the White Horse Tavern, Nolan started a blog called Bitches Can't Hang, which focused on pop culture and news.

In her videos, she delivered a monologue of comedic and sarcastic one-liners in the style of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update.

[5] In an interview with GQ in 2018, Nolan expressed regret for how Bitches Can't Hang and her "being mean about women" jump-started her career.

[5] In August 2013, Nolan joined Fox Sports 1 as a digital correspondent for Crowd Goes Wild, a sports/entertainment talk show hosted by Regis Philbin.

A September 2014 video featuring commentary on the Ray Rice domestic violence incident was picked up by The New York Times[13] and received praise in multiple media outlets.

On February 23, 2017, it was announced that Garbage Time would either be retooled from its current format, or Fox Sports would find a new hosting vehicle for Nolan.

[28] In September 2018, her ESPN+ series Always Late with Katie Nolan launched; a 'best of the year' episode aired on the main ABC network on December 30, 2018.

[37] Nolan is also the former Guinness World Record holder for most donuts stacked in a tower while blindfolded (seven), doing so on the November 7, 2018 episode of Always Late.

[39] Nolan joined the broadcast team for Apple TV's Friday Night Baseball starting in April 2022 in a one-season experiment.