Nelson was born in
London and grew up in
Worthing. He attended
Henley College. He first played basketball for the
Worthing Thunder junior programme, followed the Reading Rockets Division 1 team alongside playing for several England and Great Britain squads in the U16, U18 and U20 age groups in FIBA tournaments. He was named British player of the year in his age group for three consecutive seasons. He attended college at the
University of California, Irvine, where he became a four-year starter. He was named first-team All-
Big West Conference in his junior and senior seasons and was named Big West Player of the Year as a senior. Nelson helped UC Irvine to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015 and help guide the Anteaters to a program record 28 wins in 2016. For all 4 seasons at UC Irvine, Nelson helped the team make a postseason appearance of some kind. He finished his collegiate career 4th in made threes (204), fifth in assists (361) and eighth in steals (115) and played in the collegiate All Star Game at the 2017 Final Four. ==Career==