Christensen was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, and moved to Tampa, Florida when she was 20. She was seen by a scout from Playboy, and began to model, which "sort of interrupted"[2] her longer term plans.[3]
Christensen has a wide range of hobbies, including rock climbing, diving, snowboarding, hiking, and singing. She is an especially noted skateboarder, who has been skating since 1998, first with a boyfriend, then by herself. The hobby cost her a broken arm, at Skatopia in Ohio, when she fell on a metal ramp; the fracture forced her to quit her job (and her boyfriend left her). She stayed with the hobby, and later lived with professional skateboarder Anthony Furlong.[3]Playboy airbrushed out the scars on her arm in her pictures, and asked her to skate topless for a pictorial (which she says was "... embarrassing. I was like 'this hurts really bad!'"[4]). The hobby has been a conflict for her modeling, as she can't skate for a week before a pictorial, to avoid bruises.[4]
Christensen continued to study while working as a model. She earned a bachelor's degree in biology,[2] and went to veterinary school,[5] to become a veterinarian specializing in reptiles.[3] She says she'd like to "Live in a tropical paradise [...] traveling around the world rescuing exotic animals",[5] and has kept turtles, snakes, lizards, and frogs at her home. Other hobbies include restoring a 1968 Ford Mustang.[3]
