Will the absence of connected charger increase the cycle count?
I'm not entirely sure I understand your question, but one cycle is equivalent to a full discharge then recharge.

So, using your example, if you use the MacBook without a charger and its charge decreases by 40% and then you recharge it, that's effectively .4 of a cycle. 

In other words, to use a simpler scenario, if you use half of your MacBook's charge in one day, and then recharge it fully, and then the next day you do exactly the same, those two days combined would count as one charge cycle.

So, some users may go through a cycle a day, others can use their MacBook for weeks before completing a cycle.

For more info on this refer to Determining battery cycle count for Mac notebooks.