diff --git a/actor/v7action/curl.go b/actor/v7action/curl.go
index cd38802510..caa60f3cd8 100644
--- a/actor/v7action/curl.go
+++ b/actor/v7action/curl.go
@@ -47,8 +47,19 @@ func (actor Actor) MakeCurlRequest(
 		requestBodyBytes,
 	)
 
-	if err != nil && failOnHTTPError {
-		return nil, nil, translatableerror.CurlExit22Error{StatusCode: httpResponse.StatusCode}
+	if err != nil {
+		// A nil HTTP response means the request never reached the API (e.g. a token
+		// refresh or other authentication failure in the request wrapper). There is no
+		// status code to read and no response body to print, so surface the error
+		// directly. This also avoids a nil-pointer dereference on httpResponse below
+		// when the fail-on-http-error flag is set.
+		if httpResponse == nil {
+			return nil, nil, err
+		}
+
+		if failOnHTTPError {
+			return nil, nil, translatableerror.CurlExit22Error{StatusCode: httpResponse.StatusCode}
+		}
 	}
 
 	return responseBody, httpResponse, nil
diff --git a/actor/v7action/curl_test.go b/actor/v7action/curl_test.go
index 4f6120b425..fce810dfc2 100644
--- a/actor/v7action/curl_test.go
+++ b/actor/v7action/curl_test.go
@@ -247,5 +247,33 @@ var _ = Describe("Curl Actions", func() {
 				})
 			})
 		})
+
+		When("the request fails before an HTTP response is received", func() {
+			// e.g. a token refresh / authentication failure in the request wrapper, where
+			// no request reaches the API and there is no HTTP response.
+			BeforeEach(func() {
+				mockErr = errors.New("Bad credentials")
+				mockResponseBody = nil
+				mockHTTPResponse = nil
+			})
+
+			It("surfaces the error instead of returning empty output", func() {
+				Expect(executeErr).To(MatchError("Bad credentials"))
+				Expect(responseBody).To(BeNil())
+				Expect(httpResponse).To(BeNil())
+			})
+
+			When("the fail-on-http-errors flag is set", func() {
+				BeforeEach(func() {
+					failOnHTTPError = true
+				})
+
+				It("surfaces the error without panicking on the nil response", func() {
+					Expect(executeErr).To(MatchError("Bad credentials"))
+					Expect(responseBody).To(BeNil())
+					Expect(httpResponse).To(BeNil())
+				})
+			})
+		})
 	})
 })