Van der Gugten was born in Sydney to a Dutch immigrant father. He holds a Dutch passport, but in a 2014 Daily Telegraph article was described as "speak very little Dutch". Educated at St Pius X College, van der Gugten made his first-grade debut for the University of NSW Cricket Club at the age of 15, in November 2006. At the time of his debut, only six players had appeared in first-grade Sydney Grade Cricket at an earlier age.

A former state under-17s and under-19s player, van der Gugten made his Futures League debut for the New South Wales under-23s in September 2010, aged 19. His first-class debut for the senior state team came in November 2011, in a Sheffield Shield fixture against Western Australia. Van der Gugten played two further matches in his debut season (a Ryobi One-Day Cup game and a second Shield fixture), but for the 2012–13 season switched to Tasmania. He made his debut for that team in February 2013, playing two Ryobi One-Day Cup matches. However, van der Gugten made no senior appearances for Tasmania over the following two seasons, and eventually lost his Tasmanian contract prior to the 2015–16 season.

Van der Gugten signed with the Sydney Thunder for the inaugural 2011–12 edition of the Big Bash League, but did not play a game. He switched to the Hobart Hurricanes the following season, but did not make his debut until the 2014–15 edition, playing a single match against the Adelaide Strikers. In November 2015, van der Gugten signed with the Northern Knights, a franchise in New Zealand's Georgie Pie Super Smash. He replaced the injured Ben Laughlin as one of the team's two international players for the 2015–16 season, and took two wickets from his three matches.

In February 2016, van der Gugten signed a three-year contract with Glamorgan in English county cricket.

Van der Gugten first played for the Netherlands in January 2012, when the team appeared as guests at the 2011–12 Caribbean Twenty20. He took six wickets from four matches, including 5/21 against Sussex (another invitational team), and was retained in the Dutch squad for the 2015 World Twenty20 Qualifier two months later.^[8] At the World Twenty20 Qualifier, van der Gugten took five wickets from six games (with a best of 4/22 against Bermuda), and also made his Twenty20 International debut, which came against Canada.^[11] Later in 2012, he also made his first-class and One Day International (ODI) debuts for the Netherlands, which came against the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan, respectively.^[12]

In an Intercontinental Cup match against Namibia in April 2013, van der Gugten took figures of 7/68 and 3/53, recording his first five-wicket and ten-wicket hauls in first-class cricket.^[13] Later in the y