He previously played for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, St. George Illawarra Dragons and Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League, and at representative level for NSW Country, NRL All Stars and New South Wales in the State of Origin series.

[5][failed verification] In Round 14 against the Penrith Panthers, Vaughan scored his first NRL career try in the Raiders 24–12 win at Canberra Stadium.

[9] In Round 7 against the Melbourne Storm, Vaughan scored a solo effort try in the 79th minute to win the match for the Raiders 24–22 at Canberra Stadium.

[19] After Round 18, Vaughan was dropped to the Raiders NSW Cup team the Mount Pritchard Mounties after Coach Ricky Stuart opted to select the newly arrived prop Junior Paulo from the Parramatta Eels, rising youngster Joseph Tapine and late bloomer rookie Clay Priest to be part of the forwards rotation.

[20] But after Clay Priest suffered a season ending ankle injury, Vaughan beat out overlooked veteran forwards Shaun Fensom and Jeff Lima to fill in the vacant spot on the interchange bench for the finals.

[24] In Round 1 of the 2017 NRL season, Vaughan made his club debut for the St George Illawarra Dragons against the Penrith Panthers, starting at prop in the 42–10 win at Jubilee Oval.

[28] On 5 June, Vaughan told the Sydney Morning Herald that "The best thing I did in my career was to leave Canberra and go to St George Illawarra.

[30] After a good start to the 2019 NRL season, Vaughan was selected to play for New South Wales in the 2019 State of Origin series.

On 6 August, Vaughan was stood down by the club and fined $10,000 after he was caught breaking the NRL's strict bubble restrictions by visiting an Illawarra cafe.

[34] On 4 July, Vaughan was placed under investigation by the NRL after it was alleged he hosted a house party along with eleven of his teammates which went against the league's COVID-19 biosecurity protocols, as well as a breach of the NSW stay-at-home orders.

[45] During Warrington's loss to St Helens in round 26, Vaughan was placed on report for trying to move an injured Sione Mata'utia during the clubs 18–6 defeat.

[48] Vaughan played 24 games for Warrington in the 2024 Super League season as the club reached the semi-final before losing to Hull Kingston Rovers.