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Each force is required to have one jack, does this jack have to be assigned to the casters battlegroup, or can the mandatory jack be marshalled?

Jack or beast points can only be spent on models in the battle group.

So yes, that one jack or beast has to be in the battle group. Otherwise you will be over 2 points under and will have an illegal force.

For you to take advantage of the Caster's jack points the jack must be in the Caster's Battlegroup. So until there is a caster with 2 or fewer jack points the jack has to go with the caster.

There is no rule that says you have to have at least one 'Jack/Beast. However competitive list building rules demand you be within 2pts of your alloted points value. Since most warcaster/warlocks have well in excess of 2 warjack/warbeast points, it means this particular list-building requirment generally can't be filled without putting at least 1 Warbeast/Warjack in your casters battlegroup. However in the case that a caster has 2 or less warjack/warbeasts points you could legally build a list with no warjacks or warbeasts. Currently only one such caster "Makeda & the Exalted Court" exists and it would probably be a bad idea to run a 0-beast list anyway.

Yeah, unlike Warcasters, Warlocks need beasts to generate Fury.

What lists are you looking at where you don't want a jack on your caster? If nothing else grab a shield guard and/or an arc-node.