His father, Alan Wood Lukens, was US Chargé d'Affaires ad interim to the Republic of the Congo.

He received a master's degree from Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood Johnson IV, not to follow through on President Trump's request to try to get the British government to steer the British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland; Lukens warned that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain.

[5] In a pair of speeches to English universities in October 2018, Lukens used an anecdote about President Barack Obama's 2013 visit to Senegal to illustrate how allies can handle disagreements.

[6][7] Johnson forced Lukens out of his tenure as Deputy Chief of Mission in January 2019, seven months before he was scheduled to leave for his next assignment, effectively ending his diplomatic career.