Born in Spokane, Washington, she was discovered while performing in a theatrical production for an arts academy, and began working professionally at age 15, appearing in an episode of The Steve Harvey Show.

Her film roles in the early 2010s include Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress (2011), and the action sequel A Good Day to Die Hard (2013).

[2] Her father, an immigrant to the United States, was a survivor of the Nigerian Civil War, during which he suffered gunshot wounds that resulted in him contracting hepatitis B.

[7] When Echikunwoke was four years old, her father, then attending law school in Spokane, died of liver cancer, stemming from his war-related medical problems.

[9] In 2001, she starred in a lead role on the MTV soap opera Spyder Games as Cherish Pardee, a coffee house singer, which ran through the year.

[2] She had a recurring role on TNT's Raising the Bar (2008–2009) as the love-interest of attorney Marcus McGrath, played by J. August Richards;[10] also in 2008, she appeared as a singer in the Leonard Chess biopic Who Do You Love?

[9] She subsequently had a lead role on Almost Family, a FOX drama series chronicling three women who learn that they are siblings after a prominent fertility doctor reveals he has used his own sperm to father over 100 children with his patients.

[18] In 2007, Echikunwoke, along with Justin Long, Olivia Wilde, and Kal Penn, successfully campaigned for 2008 Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.