[10] When she was young, her mother, originally a waitress at the restaurant next to the Hsus' jeweler's shop before marriage, separated from Hsu's father due to pressure from his family on her to bear a son, along with his infidelity, domestic abuse, alcoholism and gambling.

However, before their debut, contractual disputes arose, as the sisters' playful personalities clashed with Chen's vision of a more innocent image for them.

By the time of its release in 1994, Chen intended to name the duo Dubi Duwa (嘟比嘟哇) after one of their songs, "Do Bi Di Wa," but Hsu sought help from the album's producer, Bing Wang, who renamed them S.O.S.

However, Hsu as a field host on the variety show Guess caught the eye of veteran TV producer and manager Wang Wei-Zhong.

[21]As an actor, Hsu rose to pan-Asian fame with her leading role of Dong Shancai in Meteor Garden (2001) along with boy group F4.

[1] Besides the Chinese-speaking world, the show brought her fame in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.

[23][24] After a sequel Meteor Garden II (2002), where she reprised the role of Shancai, Hsu went on to star in TV dramas such as Eternity: A Chinese Ghost Story (2003), Mars (2004), where she reunited with F4 member Vic Chou, Corner with Love (2007), Summer's Desire (2010).

[25] For her performance in Connected, a remake of the Hollywood thriller Cellular (2004), she received the nomination for the Best Actress at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Among the many beauty tips she popularized were the "red wine facial mask" and the use of the hair-loss treatment Rogaine on the eyebrows to enhance their thickness.

[27][28] She also co-authored SOS Chao Meng Qing Chun (SOS超猛青春; 1996) and SOS Tokyo Shopping Map (SOS東京拚裝大地圖; 1998) with Dee, the former about their teenage years and the latter a Japanese fashion and travel guide, and published Hu Die Fei Le (蝴蝶飛了; 2005), a collection of poems,[29] and Lao Niang Jia Dao (老娘駕到; 2015), a memoir about motherhood for her first child.

[44][37][45] On November 16, 2010, after a whirlwind romance, Hsu married Chinese entrepreneur Wang Xiaofei, the son of Zhang Lan, founder of the restaurant group South Beauty, in Beijing.

[50][51] In 2018, Hsu had an abortion after her embryo stopped developing, eight days before she began filming the marriage reality show Xing Fu San Chong Zou with Wang.

They briefly reconciled until June, when reports emerged that two passengers had tested positive for COVID-19 in Xiamen after departing from Taiwan—one of whom had been allowed to board by Taiwan's Uni Air despite a positive test result—prompting Wang to harshly criticize Taiwan's pandemic and vaccination policies on Weibo, as well as the island's growing pro-independence and anti-China sentiment, referring to some Taiwanese as "hanjian.

[39][40][41][57] In November 2022, Hsu sought enforcement of spousal maintenance at the Taipei District Court against Wang, claiming that he had failed to honor their divorce agreement since March of that year.

[74] Hsu was one of the first Taiwanese celebrities to publicly discuss mental health, including her battle with depression in 2000, from which she recovered after one year.

In 2011, she had to terminate her pregnancy due to fetal demise, and in 2018, while pregnant with her third child, she underwent a miscarriage procedure after the embryo stopped developing.