Your owners manual in the glove compartment has a picture of the master cylinder. You absolutely MUST fix the leak before bleeding the system.

If you don't have a shop manual, like a Haynes, or some basic metric hand tools: you really should consider taking it to a mechanic. You could break the master cylinder bleeding it if you don't take the top off. If you've never done this before, you might not be able to tell if the master cylinder itself has gone bad for whatever reason. If you don't have the money for a mechanic, the Haynes manual does have some decent descriptions of what's required to do the work, and how to basically work on a car.

 

That doesn't sound like air in it at all. I'd take it to a shop immediately.

 

To clarify, to bleed the MC you have to bleed the entire system. There is only one bleeder nipple on the entire clutch hydraulic system, its on the slave cylinder, which pokes out bellhousing facing the front of the car. You usually have to move some wires and hoses out of the way to get at it.

If the MC is leaking you'll have brake fluid dripping down the clutch pedal and onto the floor mat/carpet, however, a leaky MC wouldn't cause the problem you're having unless the brake fluid reservior drains completely and you suck air into the system (which would also result in air getting into the brake lines as well) or if its leaking so badly that air gets in when you let the clutch out (in which case you'd have brake fluid all over the place inside the car, as well as an empty brake fluid reservior.) There's a good chance you have an air bubble in the system and its not letting the TOB push the pressure plate out, which in turn causes the friction disc to remain engaged, causing the car to jump when you start it in gear and not shift into gear because the synchros are locking you out.

If you don't know how to bleed a hydraulic system, I'd suggest asking a brake or transmission shop to bleed the clutch for you as the dealer would probably charge an arm and a leg for this.