She immigrated to New York at the age of 16 with her parents, where she lived in Queens and earned money as a teenager in shops and restaurants.
At age 21, having won the Gold Prize at the East American Leg of MBC's College Music Festival in 1989, she was requested by the festival's MC, Song Seung-hwan, to debut as a singer in South Korea.
She returned to South Korea at the age of 23 to debut, where she promoted for 8 years, releasing hit singles such as "Violet Fragrance" (1990), "Scattered Days" (1991), "Scent In The Time" (1991), "You'll Know Then" (1993), "Winter Alone" (1995), "Orpheus' Tears" (1995) and "All I Need Is Time" (1995).
Kang Susie divorced on the condition that she held custody of her then-3 year old daughter, Viviana.
She raised her alone in South Korea until she remarried comedian and MC Kim Kook-jin in 2018, whom she met during the shoot of SBS variety show "Burning Youth".