After one year of working in the theater, she received a scholarship to the Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique in Paris, where she graduated in 1988.

After making her television debut in the TV series Żuraw i czapla (1985), Chrzanowska made her first feature film debut in the role of Róża in Cudzannieka, a psychological film based on the novel of the same name by Maria Kuncewiczowa (1986), opposite Ewa Wiśniewska.

Then she portrayed a high school student Irena in the adventure film Harley's Tale (1987) with Jan Jankowski and Leszek Teleszyński.

In 1989, Chrzanowska met her future husband, Piotr Niemkiewicz, the owner of a company dealing with the conservation of monuments.

After Niemkiewicz's death, in 2003, she returned to Paris, where she started running her late husband's company and raising her daughters.