Marie Lan Matiko is of Filipino, Japanese and Chinese heritage.

She endured a stern cultural upbringing, which ultimately fostered discipline and an inherent passion for the arts, where she could freely express herself. "When I was in grade school, I wanted to become a concert pianist", Matiko said, who began playing piano at just four years of age. "I had always been taught to stifle my emotions, so if something upset me, I would go into my room and play an angry concerto."

She was an Environmental Engineering major at UCLA. While still in college, she auditioned for the first national tour of Miss Saigon,and suddenly her career path took a sharp detour. She traded an ROTC scholarship the role of "Gigi/Mimi" when she was picked by producer Cameron Macintosh at her first professional audition for the First National tour of Miss Saigon. Thus, Matiko set out to travel the country. While on the road, she continued taking academic classes at community colleges, in addition to acting, singing and dancing courses. From the Berklee College of Music in Boston to the Cleveland Institute of Music, she sought out the best instructions in virtually every city. After leaving Miss Saigon, Matiko returned to Los Angeles where she embarked on a rigorous regimen of acting lessons. "I feel I’ve been training like an Olympic athlete.", Matiko said.

Marie Matiko is known for her starring roles as Julia in The Art of War and as Betty in the 2006 film Date Movie.

She has starred opposite leading men Craig T. Nelson, Tom Sizemore, Wesley Snipes, Mark Wahlberg, Patrick Warburton and Chow Yun-fat. For her performance in The Art of War, she garnered the nomination for Best Actress in a Feature Film at the 2001 AX Awards (the Asian-American Film and TV awards). As a testament to her timeless refreshing presence,[citation needed] Matiko was one of the AX Awards Top 20 Newcomers in 2006.

In New Line Cinema's The Corruptor, produced by Oliver Stone, Marie Lan Matiko debuted on film as the love interest of Chow Yun-Fat. Challenging acting work from the start, she won the role of May, a heroine-addict and indentured servant trapped by NY Chinatown’s Triads. Under the direction of James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross), Chow Yun-Fat and Mark Wahlberg share textured scene work alongside Matiko.

In Fox’s 2007 release Date Movie, Matiko made a notable comedic debut alongside Fred Willard and Jennifer Coolidge, playing Betty.

In the November 2007 release of Warner Brothers’ Dennis the Menace Christmas, Matiko plays alongside Robert Wagner and Louise Fletcher as Mrs. Walsh-Mellman, Dennis’s grade school teacher. Marie Matiko also voices the group therapist of Dennis's frustrated parents.

Additional film and television credits include Universal’s Mystery Men, TBS’s [[Counterstrike]], CBS’s The District and Michael Mann’s Robbery Homicide Division. Marie Matiko voiced Gong Li’s parts in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice and voiced opposite Lucy Liu and Patrick Warburton in the Carsey-WernerpProduction, UPN’s Game Over in television's first full-length CGI cartoon. She was also in Forbidden Warrior, where Matiko plays Seki, the forbidden warrior. Matiko was also on the popular TV series Xena playing the roles of Pao Ssu and K'ao Hsin, the twin daughters of Xena's spiritual mentor, Lao Ma. Her characters are on several collectible XENA: THE WARRIOR PRINCESS trading cards. Concerning her time on Xena, she stated: