Nhung is Associate Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Genome Sciences, John Curtin School of Medical Research. She leads Health Economics and Modelling alongside national and international clinical trials at the Clinical Hub for Interventional Research (CHOIR). She previously worked at the University of Otago|Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Wellington, New Zealand and currently holds the title of Honorary Associate Professor.

She is a health economist with interdisciplinary expertise in modelling and data science. Nhung is internationally recognised for her work on modelling public health interventions and has a growing research profile in machine learning in healthcare. She led a prestigious Marsden Fast Start project funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand and has contributed to securing over $21 million in competitive research funding, including a $5 million NHMRC grant as a Chief Investigator. She has served on Scientific Panels for Grant Assessment of the New Zealand Health Research Council and the NHMRC.

Nhung has published in high-impact factor leading international journals, including the Lancet Public Health, Tobacco Control, and PloS Medicine. She has been consistently ranked among the top 2% of researchers in the world in the last five years, based on citation scores (single year, the Stanford list, Ioannidis, John P.A. 2023). Her modelling work contributed to the development of the world's first tobacco endgame law (passed by the New Zealand Parliament in 2022). Her work was submitted as evidence to the UK Parliament to support the Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024–25, contributing to legislation aimed at protecting future generations from smoking. Furthermore, her research has contributed to clinical guidelines, including the European Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice. Nhung has published across 12 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with significant contributions to Zero Hunger, Reducing Inequalities, Climate Action, and Life on Land.

Nhung has served on the Arrow Award Committee, which awards an annual prize for the best published health economics paper in honour of Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow. She is currently an advisor for the World Health Organization on health economics and modelling (WHO Technical Advisory Group on Economics for Environment, Climate Change and Health; World Bank and WHO Global Technical Consultation to Estimate the Economic Burden of Foodborne Diseases).