After her father, a surgeon, was killed by the Nazis during World War II, Anna and her sister were raised by their mother, who was of noble descent and related to the 18th-century King of Poland Stanisław Leszczyński.

After studying piano and lyrical song, Anna Prucnal went on an acting career at the Studencki Teatr Satyryków, in Warsaw.

She worked with many important directors including Jorge Lavelli, Georges Wilson, Roger Planchon, Jean-Louis Barrault, Marc’O, Petrika Ionesco, Lucian Pintilie, Federico Fellini and Jacques Lassalle.

She appeared in several notable films, the most notorious of which was Dusan Makavejev's Sweet Movie, which Polish authorities deemed to be pornographic and anticommunist.

In 2002, Prucnal published her autobiography (not yet translated in English) entitled “Moi qui suis née à Varsovie” (“I, who was born in Warsaw”), co-authored with Jean Mailland.