[1] Born on 8 December 1976, in Athens, Konstantopoulou is the daughter of former Synaspismos leader and lawyer Nikos Konstantopoulos and journalist Lina Alexiou.

As a lawyer, Konstantopoulou was criticized by women's organisations and by the Greek branch of Helsinki Monitor for repeatedly delaying the trial of one of her clients, a rapist, by raising procedural obstacles.

The River leader and MP Stavros Theodorakis regularly taunted Konstantopoulou in parliament about her role in what became known as the "rapist with the tyropita (cheese pies)" scandal.

[5] On 6 February 2015, she was elected parliamentary speaker, with a record number of 235 out of 300 votes, from her own as well as from the Independent Greeks, The River, PASOK and New Democracy parties.

[8][9][10] After the agreement for the Third Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece by the first government of SYRIZA-ANEL in a U-turn from their anti-austerity identity and pre-election campaign promises, Zoe Konstantopoulou dissociated her views from the party in opposition to this, and raised a number of procedural hurdles to delay the bailout bill when it was brought for approval in the Parliament; voting against it along with rebellious anti-austerity and far-left SYRIZA MPs, she resigned as President of the Hellenic Parliament as part of a breakaway of a nationalist, Eurosceptic, hard left Syriza faction (which contained the pro-Grexit "Left Platform" of Panagiotis Lafazanis) and participated in the following legislative elections as a "collaborative independent" candidate of the pro-drachma Popular Unity party formed from said breakaway faction.