Merkin was born in Santa Clara County, California,[1] of Swedish and Russian Jewish descent[2] as the youngest child of four children.

Her mother was from Sweden and had been a model for twenty years, including an appearance in the debut Victoria's Secret catalog in 1977.

This helped her play basketball, but gathered her some abuse in school, where she was called nicknames such as "Giraffa" and "Manute Bol".

Merkin modeled for 15 years, living in Paris, Milan, New York and Los Angeles, appearing in such magazines as ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, and in more than 60 commercials, most notably campaigns for Clairol and the Nintendo video game Perfect Dark.

"[4][5] Concurrently, Merkin was a sideline reporter on the third season of Extreme Dodgeball which aired starting July 2005 on the Game Show Network.