Merkin was born in Santa Clara County, California, of Swedish and Russian Jewish descent as the youngest child and only daughter of four children. Her mother was from Sweden, and had been a model for twenty years, including an appearance in the debut 1977 Victoria"s Secret catalog.
She attended boarding school in England. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, aiming to study medicine, specifically plastic surgery, but left during the first quarter to become a professional model.
Merkin was a tall child, reaching 5 ft 11 in (180 m) by the age of 14. This helped her play basketball, but gathered her some abuse in school, where she was called nicknames such as "Giraffa" and "Manute Bol". Merkin began modeling part time from the age of 15, while she was in high school.
Modeling Merkin modeled for 15 years, living in Paris, Milan, New York, and Los Angeles, appearing in such magazines as ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper"s Bazaar and Vogue, and over 60 commercials, most notably campaigns for Clairol and the Nintendo video game Perfect Dark.
Foreign Perfect Dark, Merkin appeared as the lead video game character Joanna Dark in commercials and in-store promotions for the N64 cartridge. Merkin"s hair was cut short and dyed black for the appearances.
Merkin was selected for the Maxim "Hot 100" list of attractive women in 2006 (at #74) and 2007 (at #56).
