Wijnberg was educated at the Graphic School in Amsterdam, where he received drawing lessons from Jos Rovers, and at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in the same place. As a painter he was a self-taught artist.
Wijnberg was active in several areas. In 1942 his art painting was exhibited for the first time. After going into hiding during the last years of the Second World War, he founded the world's first youth ballet group in 1945, the well-known Scapino Ballet, together with Hans Snoek and Hans van Norden. Together with Van Norden and Theo Kurpershoek, he also started the painters' association De Realisten in the late 1940s, a modern-figurative group that opposed the abstract art of Cobra and Vrije Beelden. His work has been exhibited both at home and abroad. In 1952 he was co-founder of the Association of Practitioners of Monumental Arts.
Wijnberg has illustrated and/or provided a cover drawing for countless collections of poetry and novels. In 1943, he began to decorate with drawings and vignettes in the clandestinely published novella Nymphale by A. van Pelt. He also designed covers for the books of W.F. Hermans, some under the pseudonym Montevino. Wijnberg also gave the Literary Series De Witte Olifant published by G.A. van Oorschot a face.
In addition to his work as an artist, Wijnberg was the visual arts editor of the literary magazine Tirade from 1958, ran an art dealership from 1965 to 1970 and later held the first professorship of scenography at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Wijnberg received the H.N. Werkman Prize 1966 and in 2000 he received the oeuvre prize from the Fund for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
Nicolaas Wijnberg died at the age of 87 in the Larense Rosa Spier Huis, where he had lived for several years.
