Born in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nurkić began playing basketball at 14 years of age, after Bosnian sports agent Enes Trnovčević took him to Slovenia and gave him an opportunity to play. He played in the youth categories for Slovenian team Zlatorog Laško. In February 2012, he was briefly loaned to Union Olimpija in order to play the Nike International Junior Tournament which was held in Belgrade. Nurkić attracted attention internationally by averaging 18.8 points and 11 rebounds over 5 games. Shortly after the tournament, he parted ways with Zlatorog Laško. Just days after, it was revealed that Nurkić was training with Croatian team Cedevita.\n', '

In October 2012, after a few months of training with Croatian team Cedevita, Nurkić signed a four-year contract with the club. In his first season with Cedevita, he had a small role in the team under head coach Aleksandar Petrović, mostly playing in garbage time. In the Euroleague, he played only 6 games, averaging 1.8 points per game. In January 2013, Nurkić was loaned to Zadar until the end of the season on his initiative, hoping to play more minutes. In his second season, under new head coach Jasmin Repeša, he had breakthroughs in the regional Adriatic League, averaging 11.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, for only 16.3 minutes spent in the court. This was attributed mainly to foul troubles and conditioning issues.\n', '

In 2014, Nurkić was nominated for the FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year Award.\n', '

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