Priyanka Chopra was born in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand to Ashok Chopra and Madhu Akhauri, both of whom are doctors.

Crowned as Miss India World and later becoming Miss World 2000, Chopra made her debut in acting with the Tamil film Thamizhan (2001). After two years, she made her Bollywood debut with Anil Sharma's The Hero: Love Story of a Spy and had her first commercial success with her second release, Andaaz from the same year, for which she won a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award.

She also has the distinction of becoming the second woman to win the Filmfare Best Villain Award for her performance in Abbas-Mustan's Aitraaz (2004). Later on, Chopra went on to deliver commercial success with films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Krrish (2006), her biggest blockbuster so far.

After winning the Miss World title, Chopra became an actress. She made her debut in the 2002 Tamil film Thamizhan alongside Vijay, in which she also sung playback, before moving on to Bollywood. In 2003, her first Bollywood film, The Hero: Love Story of a Spy released and won her good reviews.[4] Despite being given a below average status, the film went on to become one of the highest grossing films of that year.[5] Her next film, Andaaz opposite Akshay Kumar was a success,[6] earning her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award and a nomination for Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award.

As a young girl Chopra studied at St. Maria Goretti in Bareilly, and later went to US, where she was a student at Newton North High School in Newton, Massachusetts and North Delta Senior Secondary School in North Delta before returning to India to complete high school at Army School (Bareilly). After winning the Miss World Pageant she began college at Jai Hind College in Mumbai.

Among her other notable movies so far are Nikhil Advani's multi-starrer, Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute To Love, Love Story 2050, God Tussi Great Ho and Chamku, all of which failed to do well at the box office.