 Biggs enrolled at Yale University, his father's alma mater.He studied under poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren as an English major and was a member of the Elihu secret society.After graduating in 1955, Biggs served in the U.S. Marines for three years, taught English at the Landon School, a prep school in Bethesda, Maryland, played semiprofessional soccer, and tried his hand at creative writing.