Jako was born in Drumright, Oklahoma, to an Italian mother from Padriciano [it] near Trieste and Hungarian father from Nagykovácsi near Budapest.

[citation needed] The countries and states she grew up in include: Oklahoma, Illinois, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Turkey and Morocco.

Jako became a self-described "HIV poster girl," making appearances on television and radio to raise awareness of the virus.

She appeared on the ABC Afterschool Special called Sex Unplugged, a Glamour article on HIV-positive women and their HIV-negative partners, and in 1996 was interviewed on The Jenny Jones Show.

[3] During her studies at PNCA, she began work with another HIV-positive woman, Rebecca Guberman, on a documentary film, Blood Lines.

Production assistance came from the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Wieden & Kennedy and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Jako has permanent truncal adiposity (a collection of fat at the waist, back and neck, and wasting in the extremities.

)[10] She experiences dangerously elevated lipid levels, both cholesterol and triglycerides due to side effects from her medications.