Sophie Howard was born and raised in Southport, England. She attended Christ the King Catholic High school, and was in the Salvation Army until she was 16. At 17, she became a stripper. Sophie studied English Language and Creative Writing at University, later swapping to Marketing Information Systems. During this time she signed to the IMM modelling agency, and appeared in Loaded in their "Almost Famous" and "Sauna Babes" sections. She was discovered by Loaded when they invited her to appear in their popular Sauna Girls feature, after Howard sent them amateur photographs of her wearing a PVC catsuit. A growing fan base meant that by December 2005 Howard had risen to the cover of the magazine.

Howard's popularity took off after she became associated with Jeany Savage, a glamour photographer with the Daily Star, where she worked for around a year. She subsequently signed a contract with Loaded, resulting in a relationship advice column and a regular feature called "Sophie's Choice". As of 2006, Howard has been signed to Nuts magazine for about eighteen months. In 2006 Sophie's management IMM signed an exclusive 12 month deal - for 2007 - with Dennis publishing for Sophie to frequently feature in Maxim and Bizarre.