TWOV (literally "Transit WithOut Visa") facility does not permit the passenger to leave the sterile international transit area. Trust me, this is not something I would wish even on my worst enemy for 2 nights at any Indian airport. Hence, your friend will require a Transit Visa.

The Indian visa is a PITA because they take forever-and-a-day if you do it by mail. However, they will also take longer to process the visa if you apply in any country other than that of your permanent residence.

There is no Indian consulate in LAX, so that is not an option. The Indian representation in the United States are located in Washington, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Houston.

For a California resident, the relevant jurisdiction would be SFO. However, they are also the most notoriously inefficient visa issuing post and have been known to take around 3 weeks (including mail and processing times) to issue a simple transit permit. They are also very sticky about "jurisidiction" and will not deal with you if you are not resident in their "area". Even as an Indian citizen, I was denied passport renewal service by them because I was not permanently resident in their "area".

HKG Consulate requires a minimum of 5 business days for anyone who doesn't reside in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, so that would probably not be a good option either.

YVR Consulate has a reputation for being surprisingly helpful, so if your friend will be there in person it is possible to get same-day service for a fee. However, if your friend is not normally resident in Western Canada, there will be another surcharge. The cost for a transit visa will be C$16 for the visa + C$55 for same-day service + C$30 for non-resident service for a total of C$101. For US citizens, there is an additional C$61 fee as well for a total cost of C$162.