Tanaka was born in Huntington, New York. Her brother, Alessandro Tanaka, is also an actor. She graduated from Brown University in 2000 with a degree in human biology. She graduated from Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago in 2008 with an M.D. degree. She completed her internal Medicine residency program at the University of Chicago. She completed her Cardio Vascular fellowship program at the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in 2015.
