I know you weren't logic-ing anything yet.
NUKED - 2 could mean NU?S?, ?UK?? or ?U?SD
From NUKED = 2 I only get one result that works for all the points given.
KUKRI
1. GRAPH - 0
2. SUCKS - 1.5
3. PLANT - 0
4. STUCK - 0.5
5. STACK - 0
6. SACKS - 0.5 - proved U
7. NUKED - 2
KUKRI - 5
+30 to Maquis
+7 to me
Even with new rules you found it fairly quickly. I knew this word mostly because of DnD and video games. It's a type of knife.