Nolwenn and her parents left Saint-Renan in 1982. Until 1993, she moved out several times before finally settling down with her family in her grandparents' house in St-Yorre. Her father, professional footballer Jean-Luc Le Magueresse, had deserted the family in 1992, when she was only 10 years old.

Nolwenn studied at the "Collège des Célestins" in Vichy. When she was 11, her music teacher detected her musical skills and encouraged her to learn how to play violin. When she was 13, she won the "Les écoles du désert" contest sponsored by the Cora supermarket chain, and went on a humanitarian mission from Gao to Timbuktu, in Mali which she later claimed had a profound influence on her.

In July 1998, she was sponsored by the Vichy Rotary Club on a one-year student exchange to the United States, in Cincinnati, Ohio. During that stay, she attended a two-day workshop in the Hamilton High School, a performing arts school. When she came back to France, she spoke fluent Engli