My friend had a cat with exactly this problem. The first thing she did was to create a positive association with grooming & 'lug' removal by doing it while the cat was fed.
Then the next thing she did was never to pull on the lugs but to cut them - always away from the cat's skin but towards the ends of the fur not across the top of the skin, which risks a skin cut. This made each lump of fur smaller with less hairs per lug to be caught up in, they became looser on the skin & thus easier to finally remove.
Finally she found a gaget with a plastic hook but a captive blade inside the hook to cut any lug the hook becomes lodged in. I think it was a dog grooming tool made by 'Mikki' but we got it at Pets at Home about 3 years ago.
The real charm is to comb the cat every day to stop lugs forming in the first place - best of luck with that!.