Koizumi grew up in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York, and later modeled for numerous top designers, including Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons and Jean Paul Gaultier. She appeared in Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and other top publications and worked in the runways of Paris, Rome, Milan, Tokyo and other fashion centers worldwide. In 1985, she starred in Michael Cimino’s film Year of the Dragon, in which she played the role of Chinese-American television reporter Tracy Tzu, who falls in love with the fanatical cop Stanley White, played by Mickey Rourke. For this role, she was nominated for two Razzie Awards.[2] Koizumi subsequently had a cameo in Abel Ferrara’s King of New York.