[4] A successful model, King was discovered at age 14 in 1993 and appeared in Vogue, Mademoiselle and Harper's Bazaar, among other fashion magazines.

She was featured in the cover story of the New York Times Magazine published on February 4, 1996,[11][4] and had walked the runway for Chanel, Alexander McQueen and Christian Dior.

In 1998, she began co-hosting MTV's fashion series, House of Style, with fellow model turned actress Rebecca Romijn.

"[4] In 2004, King, along with Halle Berry, Julianne Moore, and Eva Mendes was chosen as a spokesmodel for a high-profile ad campaign for Revlon.

The advertisements were featured in print, television, theatrical, outdoor, and Internet venues,[12] banking on their spokeswomen's "collective star power" to sell the cosmetics products.

[14] In 1999, King began her acting career and made her debut in the Daniel Waters' comedy Happy Campers, as Pixel.

Happy Campers was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001, and in 2003, King was nominated for Best Actress at the DVD Exclusive Awards.

[16] King made her first appearance in a large Hollywood production with her role as a nurse, Betty Bayer, in the World War II epic romance Pearl Harbor (2001).

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine commented that King "has a lively minute or two" in the film, but her part was small and the "young cast is mostly pinup packaging".

Slackers received negative responses from critics, including one who found that the characters "are not so strikingly original as to elevate the slack material",[20] while Four Faces of God and Lone Star State of Mind did not have wide theatrical releases.

2003 saw King in the film Bulletproof Monk, alongside Chow Yun-fat and Seann William Scott, an adaptation of a comic book by Michael Avon Oeming.

In late 2003, King appeared in the music video for the Robbie Williams song, "Sexed Up", and on the cover artwork for the single's release.

She first appeared in the independent black comedy and satire Pretty Persuasion, playing a small role as Kathy Joyce, the stepmother of Evan Rachel Wood's character.

King landed dual roles (as twins) in the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City.

[6] King portrayed Goldie and Wendy, the twin prostitutes in charge of the girls of Old Town, in the segment The Hard Goodbye opposite Mickey Rourke.

Sin City featured a large ensemble cast of well-known actors which included Rosario Dawson and Jessica Alba, with whom King "kinda grew up together" in New York.

[6] In Sin City, King was one of the few in the black and white film to have color, that being, red lips and blonde hair when acting as Goldie.

[26] She stars as a mother attempting to find the truth and save her son when threatened by spirits during the Chinese tradition of Ghost Month.

She also appeared in the Star Wars-themed comedy Fanboys; originally set for release in January 2008, the film was postponed when director Kyle Newman received additional funding to shoot new scenes.

[29] The Pardon, a film based on the true life story of Toni Jo Henry, the only woman to be electrocuted by Louisiana, stars King in the lead role with John Hawkes playing her partner-in-crime.

"[30] The Jim Kouf comedy, A Fork in the Road, has King portraying April Rogers, alongside Daniel Roebuck.

[39] King appeared in Lana Del Rey's music video, "Summertime Sadness", which was directed by her husband, Kyle Newman.