Born in Saint-Étienne, Brochard-Wyart studied at École normale supérieure de Cachan from 1964 to 1968 and obtained a degree in physics.

She has written an autobiographical article titled "A Tour of My Soft Matter Garden: From Shining Globules and Soap Bubbles to Cell Aggregates".

She has four children with the Nobel Laureate physicist Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, including the neuroscientist Claire Wyart.

[1] Prix Jean Ricard from the French Physical Society (Société française de physique) in 1998.

A special mention for the Prix Roberval in 2007 for Capillarity and Wetting Phenomena -Droplets, bubbles, pearls and waves,[2] co-authored with Pierre-Gilles de Gennes and David Quéré.