The granddaughter of former Yale president Kingman Brewster, and daughter of an investment banker and a swimsuit model, Brewster was born in Panama City, Panama on April 26, 1980. She was raised in London, Rio de Janeiro, and New York, earning her first screen credit in the 1988 Brazilian children's film “Super Xuxa.” She settled in Manhattan a few years later and ventured into daytime serials by appearing as the youngest member of a Hispanic family on ABC's "All My Children" (1970- ). Later that year, she was cast as teen heroine Nikki Munson on "As the World Turns" (CBS, 1956- ), and spent three years (1995-98) on the soap while attending the Professional Children’s School.
Brewster left the soap with the intention of attending Yale, but deferred her enrollment when her acting career took off; first with her casting as bitchy cheerleader Delilah in Robert Rodriguez’ teen horror flick, "The Faculty" (1998). She followed with a strong turn as a teenager who becomes involved in the antiwar movement in the NBC miniseries "The 60s" (1999) before undertaking another feature, "The Invisible Circus" (2000), in which she played Cameron Diaz's sister.
Brewster really hit the radar – and the “Sexiest” lists of all the men’s magazines – in the surprise summer blockbuster "The Fast and the Furious" (2001), set in the high-octane world of illegal street racing. With her sexy and powerful performance, Brewster earned legions of male fans, as evidenced by her string of off-screen relationships with the likes of rapper-turned-actor Mark Wahlberg and New York Yankee, Derek Jeter. Though the acting offers came pouring in after “Furious,” Brewster elected to return to her interrupted studies at Yale; sticking with schooling until she earned her undergraduate degree in 2003.
Brewster returned to theaters in “D.E.B.S.” (2004), a silly spy comedy about four high school girls who work as top secret agents for the U.S. government, with Brewster playing the sultry villain, Lucy Diamond. She went on to play the title role in "Nearing Grace" (2005), an indie coming-of-age story set in the 1970s that found the actress again cast as a distracting temptress. Donning a uniform and adopting a more serious persona, Brewster appeared with James Franco in the derivative military drama "Annapolis" (2006), however she drew in more audiences with her starring role in the gory prequel, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning" (2006), though the film was similarly dismissed by film critics.
The 26-year-old actress wed producer Andrew Form in 2007 – the pair had met while filming “Texas Chainsaw” – and in the fall of 2008, Brewster returned to series television on NBC's "Chuck" (2008- ). The show’s combination of action and offbeat humor proved a fine outlet for Brewster’s appeal in the recurring role of newly-rekindled love of the electronics store employee-turned-CIA agent, Chuck Bartowski. The following spring, she found herself in the spotlight with the sequel “Fast & Furious” (2009), reprising her role of Mia Toretto to the delight of record-breaking numbers of moviegoers.