Leone was born in Sarnia, Ontario to Sikh Punjabi parents.[3] Her father was born in Tibet and raised in Delhi, while her mother (who died in 2008[6]) was from Himachal Pradesh, Sirmaur.[3][7] As a young girl, she was very athletic and played street hockey with the boys,[2] and ice skating on a nearby frozen lake.[8]
Although the family was Sikh,[3] her parents enrolled her in Catholic school[3][9] as it was felt to be unsafe for her to go to public school.[10] There she had her first kiss at 11, lost her virginity to a basketball player at another school at 16,[9] and discovered her bisexuality at age 18.[11] When she was 13, her family moved to Fort Gratiot, Michigan, then to Lake Forest, California a year later,[9][12] fulfilling her grandparents' dream that the family be together in one place.[3] She graduated from high school in 1999 and enrolled in college.