[2] Koroma was born on 19 March 1958 in Kono District in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.

During her childhood, her father worked as the managing director of the National Diamond Mining Company (NDMC) before entering into politics.

Koroma spent her early years at various primary schools around Sierra Leone as her father was being posted from one place to another.

She attended the oldest secondary school for girls in West Africa, the Annie Walsh Memorial Secondary School in Freetown, and completed her undergraduate degree in biochemistry and a Master of Science degree in Synthetic Organic Chemistry in the United Kingdom.

During the 1997 interregnum in Sierra Leone, she left the country for the United Kingdom where she studied nursing at Kings College University in London and later became a Fellow of the West African College of Nursing.