Parker is a native Californian. She began ballet study at age 6, trained with youth programs around the country and, at age 15, joined the San Francisco Ballet. After three years of touring, she switched to contemporary dance and began studying acting while working as a bartender. Shortly thereafter, she landed her first speaking part on an episode of Seinfeld. Parker likes to ride horses, spend time with family and friends and drive hot wheels. She even attended the Motion Picture Stunt Driving Course in San Bernardino, California.
She left home at age 15 to join the San Francisco Ballet School. Her hobbies include horseback riding, stunt driving, and target shooting. While promoting The Pretender in Monte Carlos' TV festival with her co-star Michael T. Weiss in Feb, 2001, she said in two different interviews that she was living with a guy named Jim for 11 years. She later married him and he died of cancer almost two years after that interview. She "played" the legs of Julia Roberts's character in one of the first scenes of the movie Pretty Woman. When we see the character wake up in her bed, her head is hidden by a pillow: it is Andrea Parker and not Julia Roberts.