Sung Hi Lee was born on April 1, 1970, in Seoul, South Korea. Girl spent a large part of her childhood moving around from city to city, even before the start of her modeling career.

Due to her father's job, Sung Hi and her family were forced to move around from Houston, Dallas, D.C., and Chicago. More of a tomboy than a little princess, and more of a school nerd than homecoming queen, Sung Hi was a very serious student and didn't have much of a social life, also due to the constant change of high schools.

Although Lee had originally planned to study medicine with the goal of working in sports medicine, fate had another ambition for her altogether, in different instances. Her first brush with luck occurred in Dallas, when she went to a nightclub that she frequented regularly. The nightclub was holding a fashion show, but since they didn't like the models that the agency had picked out for them, they asked Sung Hi to participate.

Sung Hi caught the attention of one of the agents, who wanted to work with the Asian beauty. While a full scholarship student at Ohio State University, Sung Hi had visited a friend of hers in Washington D.C.

Her friend's friend was a Play.boy scout and photographer, who insisted on taking her picture, and asked if she was interested in working for the magazine. For the next few months, the photographer asked her friend if she had changed her mind as she refused at first; Lee eventually gave in and posed for the bunny mag.