Chaudhry was born Ritu Chaudhry in Darjeeling to an Indian, Hindu Jat father and a Nepali-origin mother from Darjeeling. She attended Dow Hill in Kurseong till class X and later moved to Loreto College in Darjeeling. Initially in the 1990s, she appeared in TV ads of which most famous was for Pepsi with Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai. She was a VJ on music channels where she was noticed by Subhash Ghai. Subhash Ghai gave her a break in the movie Pardes, which was released in 1997. Movie was successful and won many awards including the Filmfare award for best debut for this movie.