Jordana Brewster was born in Panama City, Panama, the daughter of Maria João (née Leal de Sousa), a former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model from Brazil, and Alden Brewster, an American investment banker. Her paternal grandfather, Kingman Brewster, Jr., was an educator, diplomat, and president of Yale University. Brewster left Panama when she was 2 months old, relocating to London where she would spend 6 years before moving to her mother's native Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She left Brazil at the age of 10, settling in Manhattan, New York, where she would live for the next 15 years. Brewster studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in New York and graduated from the Professional Children's School in New York. She then enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 2003.