Chopra's maternal grandmother, Mrs. Akhouri, was a Malayalee Jacobite Syrian Christian originally named Mary John,[9] who belonged to the Kavalappara Nair family in Kumarakom, Kerala.

[12] Owing to Chopra's parents' professions as military physicians, the family was posted in a number of places in India, including Delhi, Chandigarh, Ambala, Ladakh, Lucknow, Bareilly, and Pune.

[14][15][16] In an interview published in Daily News and Analysis, Chopra said that she did not mind travelling regularly and changing schools; she welcomed it as a new experience and a way to discover India's multicultural society.

[38] In 2003, Chopra made her Bollywood film debut as the second female lead opposite Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta in Anil Sharma's The Hero: Love Story of a Spy.

[49] Chopra considers her first role as an antagonist, portraying Soniya Roy, an ambitious woman who accuses her employee of sexual harassment, as the "biggest learning experience of her career".

She was featured opposite Salman Khan in the first chapter as Kamini, an item girl and aspiring actress who tries to land the lead role in a Karan Johar film with a publicity gimmick.

[45] In 2009, Chopra played a feisty Marathi woman named Sweety in Vishal Bhardwaj's caper thriller Kaminey (co-starring Shahid Kapoor), about twin brothers and the journey in their life linked with the underworld.

[89] Chopra's heavy workload—filming for several productions, travelling for endorsements and performing at live shows (including the Miss India pageant)—took its toll; she fainted during filming, and was admitted to hospital.

[99] In 2013, she lent her voice to the character of Ishaani, the reigning Pan-Asian champion from India and the love interest of the main protagonist in the Disneytoon Studios film Planes, a spinoff of Pixar's Cars franchise.

[113] She played an NRI girl in the Apoorva Lakhia's bilingual action drama Zanjeer (Thoofan in Telugu), a remake of the 1973 Hindi film of the same name, which met with poor reactions from critics and was unsuccessful at the box office.

[119] In 2014, Chopra played the lead female role in Yash Raj Films's romantic action drama Gunday directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, alongside Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Irrfan Khan.

[127][128] In 2015, Chopra starred in Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhadakne Do, an ensemble comedy-drama, featuring Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh and Anushka Sharma.

Pratim D. Gupta from The Telegraph wrote of Chopra, "From the propah body language to the measured speech [...] shows the kind of depth she is able to bring to her lines and characters these days.

[138][139] Rob Lowman of the Los Angeles Daily News applauded her "dynamic screen presence" and James Poniewozik of The New York Times named Chopra as the "strongest human asset" of the show, and added that "she is immediately charismatic and commanding.

[152] The following year, Chopra made her Hollywood live-action film debut by playing the antagonist Victoria Leeds in Seth Gordon's action comedy Baywatch opposite Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron.

[162][163] She returned to Hindi cinema (as Priyanka Chopra Jonas) later in 2019 with Shonali Bose's biographical drama The Sky Is Pink, in which she played mother to Aisha Chaudhary, a teenager suffering from a terminal illness.

[164] Kate Erbland of IndieWire found her to be "extraordinary" as "the film's driving force, a tough-talking mama bear", and Anna M. M. Vetticad took note of the "simmering restraint" in her performance.

The feature received generally positive reviews;[171] Richard Roeper from the Chicago Sun-Times praised the actress for "livening up the proceedings" as the strait-laced Ms. Granada, and Ian Freer of the Empire magazine felt that she did the "kids' film acting to the hilt".

[174][175] Writing for The Times, film critic Kevin Maher deemed Chopra Jonas' performance "impressive" and The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney commended her for bringing "emotional depth" to her role.

[184] Critics had mixed opinions on the series,[185] but Jasper Rees of The Daily Telegraph was particularly impressed by Chopra Jonas' potential as a female James Bond, finding her "flirty and funny and hard as a bag of nine-inch nails".

[199][200] Her first single, "In My City", debuted in the US on 13 September 2012 in a TV spot for the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football;[201] a shortened version of the song was used to open each show of the season.

[13] The song received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial success in India; it sold more than 130,000 copies in its first week, topped the Hindi pop chart and was certified triple platinum.

[249] She was invited as one of the speakers alongside Gordon Brown, Steve Wozniak, Bill Clinton, and Charlie Baker for the 50th anniversary of the World Leaders Conference at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston.

The video featuring her along with other singers, including Katy Perry, and The Black Eyed Peas was created as part of a global campaign by UNICEF to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

[252] Indian prime minister Narendra Modi selected Chopra as one of his nine nominees called "Navratna" in 2014 for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a national cleanliness campaign by the Government of India.

[260] In late April 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, Chopra along with husband Nick opened a fundraiser along with NGO GiveIndia to get donations for oxygen supply, COVID-19 care centers, testing, and vaccination efforts.

[284] In 2012, she performed at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in the opening ceremony of the fifth season of cricket's Indian Premier League with Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Katy Perry.

In August 2012 she wrote a column published in The Times of India titled "No woman in Mumbai feels safe any longer", discussing the murder of 25-year-old Pallavi Purkayastha,[290] whom she met while working on Don.

She praised and quoted Nobel Peace Prize winners Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, and described how her desire to help others was triggered when, at 9, she joined her parents while they volunteered their spare time to offer modern health care to the rural poor.

[358] In 2020, Chopra was one among several Bollywood actors who were criticised on social media for posting Instagram messages showing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, despite their previous work advertising skin-lightening products which perpetuate colorism.