[5][6] Gugger was born 1 May 1970 at the CSI Basel Mission Hospital in Udupi, Karnataka, India, to a Brahmin Anasuya widow.

Due to difficulties, his mother was unable to keep him, and gave him to Dr. Marianne Pflugfelder of the missionary hospital to seek a couple that adopts him.

Gugger was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Odisha, India for his social work for children and young people.

[8] In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nik Gugger launched a fundraising campaign to enable ventilator purchases in Odisha, India.

[11][12] Nick married in 1994 and named his first daughter after his mother Anasuya whom he praised as a “very powerful, compassionate and loving woman” that he never met.