[2] Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[1] to a mother who worked at a factory and a father who was a butcher.
[3] Smith started her career in 1972 as a model, working for such brands as Chanel, Versace, Geoffrey Beene, Issey Miyake, Norma Kamali, Thierry Mugler, and Patrick Kelly.
[3] She also modeled for her brother Willi Smith's brand WilliWear Ltd.[4] She also had a successful print career, including a photo campaign for Yves St. Laurent as well as appearances in the magazines Vogue, ELLE, Ebony, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Seventeen.
Smith had a restaurant in the West Village neighborhood of New York City called Toukie's.
Smith said that the name "Toukie" comes from her grandmother, who used to play her a song about a fire engine that had a lot of energy.