Jovovich released the track "Gentleman Who Fell", with an accompanying music video, as the sole single from the album. The music video was originally directed by Lisa Bonet and featured Harry Dean Stanton, but Jovovich was unsatisfied with the results and decided to film another version. The second version of "Gentleman Who Fell", a homage to Maya Deren's short film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), was subsequently played on MTV. Jovovich toured the United States during most of 1994 to promote the album, opening for Toad the Wet Sprocket and Crash Test Dummies, as well as playing smaller acoustic sets. Jovovich had opted to perform in smaller and more intimate settings, turning down a musical appearance on Saturday Night Live. Jovovich has also been collaborating musically with longtime friend and musician Chris Brenner, who co-wrote with her on the Divine Comedy Album and who was the musical coordinator for the supporting tour. She and Brenner met in 1993 and have since worked together on several ventures. Following The Divine Comedy, she expressed interest in releasing a second album, having had ten songs ready for a Future recording that was intended for a Summer 1996 release. Despite the appearance of a lo-fi field recording The People Tree Sessions in 1998, Jovovich has yet to release a second album.

Milla Jovovich was born in 1975 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, the daughter of Galina Loginova, a Russian Actress, and Bogich Jovovich, a Serbian Doctor. Her maternal ancestors were from the Russian city of Tula. Her paternal ancestors are from the Vasojevići clan and they also lived Metohija. She spent most of her early childhood in Moscow, Russian SSR, her mother's native city, and says she was born in Ukraine "pretty much by accident".

In 1980, when Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union and immigrated to London. They subsequently immigrated to Sacramento, California, settling in Los Angeles seven months later. Milla's parents divorced soon after their arrival in Los Angeles.

Jovovich's mother had "raised [her] to be a movie star." In 1985, Galina enrolled Jovovich at the age of 10 in acting classes, and when her acting jobs picked up, she started attending school for young actors rather than regular school system.

Born in Kiev, Jovovich immigrated with her parents to London when she was five and subsequently immigrated to Sacramento, California, settling in Los Angeles seven months later. In 1987, she began modeling at the age of 12 when Herb Ritts photographed her for the cover of the Italian magazine Lei. Richard Avedon featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In 1988, Jovovich had her first acting role in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu, and that year also appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction.

Jovovich had begun working on a music album as early as 1988, when she was signed by SBK Records after the company heard a demo she recorded. In August 1990, she asserted in an interview that the then-forthcoming album would be "a mix between Kate Bush, Sinéad O'Connor, This Mortal Coil, and the Cocteau Twins". After it was initially presented by SBK strictly as a pop album, Jovovich protested, insisting on using her personal poetry for lyrics and recording her own instrumental material. Jovovich had written the songs when she was fifteen, with the exception of a Ukrainian folk song, "In a Glade", that she covered. In April 1994, billed under her first name, she released The Divine Comedy, a title that was a reference to the epic poem by Dante Alighieri of the same name. Jovovich had chosen the title after seeing Russian Artist Alexis Steele's proposed cover artwork Sketch for the then untitled album. Jovovich found that the Sketch had "all the struggle that I'm singing about. It IS the Divine comedy". The Divine Comedy was well received by critics, and featured pop-infused traditional Ukrainian folk songs that led to comparisons with Musicians Tori Amos and Kate Bush. John McAlley of Rolling Stone called the album "remarkable", "strikingly mature and rich in invention", and as featuring "angst-laced poetry with vivid melodies and arrangements that find a Common spirit in synth pop, European folk and psychedelic dream rock".

At age 15, she was cast as the lead as Lilli Hargrave in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), opposite Brian Krause. Given her age and beauty, she was often compared to Brooke Shields, another child model-turned-actress who had starred in the original Blue Lagoon. The role was controversial, as Jovovich appeared nude in the film, as had Shields in The Blue Lagoon.. For this role, Jovovich was nominated both for "Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture" at the 1991 Young Artist Awards, and "Worst New Star" at the 1991 Golden Raspberry Awards.

Jovovich has been nominated for numerous awards. In 1992, she was nominated for Best Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture at the Young Artist Awards for her role in Return to the Blue Lagoon. She was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst New Star for her role in this film.

In addition to being a former smoker, Jovovich has advocated the legalization of cannabis, and appeared in a spread and on the cover for High Times. In an article published in 1994, she admitted that her only vices were cigarettes and cannabis. She practices yoga and meditates often in attempts to live a healthy lifestyle; although not affiliating with any specific religion, she prays and considers herself a "spiritual person". She avoids Jun K foods and prefers to cook for herself. "Being Russian", Jovovich likes buckwheat and named Japanese soba noodles as her "personal favorite". She practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in addition to other varieties of martial arts. Jovovich also enjoys playing the guitar, and writing poems and lyrics for songs.

Jovovich co-created and mastered an alien fictional language of over 400 words for her role. She wore a costume that came to be known as the "ACE-bandage" costume; the body suit designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier was made of medical bandages. The Fifth Element was selected as the opening film for the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and its worldwide box office gross was over $263 million, more than three times its budget of $80 million. The Fifth Element was often praised for its visual style; critic James Berardinelli wrote, "Jovovich makes an impression, although her effectiveness has little to do with acting and less to do with dialogue". Jovovich was nominated for "Favorite Female Newcomer" at the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards and "Best Fight" at the MTV Movie Awards. The film inspired a video game and a planned Leeloo action figure, but the figure was never released due to licensing problems. In a 2003 interview, Jovovich said Leeloo was her favorite role.

In 1998, she was also nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Fifth Element, the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best New Actress, and the MTV Movie Award for Best Fight Scene (between her and aliens) for the role as well. Conversely she also received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for the same role.

In May 1999, Jovovich along with Chris Brenner formed an experimental band called "Plastic Has Memory", in which she wrote the songs, sang, and played electric guitar. The band was "[m]uch heavier and darker than the vaguely Ukrainian folk-sounding elements of her first album" and had a similar sound to a grunge and trip hop Portishead. Plastic Has Memory played about a dozen shows in Los Angeles and New York City for a potential Virgin Records album release, one of which Mick Jagger had attended. Though Plastic Has Memory was featured on Hollywood Goes Wild, a benefit Celebrity compilation album, the group never formally released a record and is no longer together.

She received a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, in 2000.

Prior to her relationship with Anderson, Jovovich married on-screen boyfriend Shawn Andrews in 1992 while filming Dazed and Confused together. Andrews was 21, while Jovovich was 16; the marriage was annulled by her mother two months later. Shortly after the annulment, Jovovich moved to Europe with her friend and musician Chris Brenner where she met and then lived with her new boyfriend, ex-Jamiroquai Bassist Stuart Zender, in London from May 1994 to October 1995. From 1995 to 1997, she dated Photographer Mario Sorrenti. In Las Vegas, she married The Fifth Element Director Luc Besson in 1997 where they went skydiving directly after the ceremony; they divorced in 1999. Between 1998 and 2001, she befriended the young poet and musician, Anno Birkin, and each was the other's inspiration behind many of their compositions. Jovovich became involved with Birkin romantically just before his death in a car accident on November 8, 2001.

In 2002, she received a nomination for the Saturn Best Actress Award for her role as Alice in Resident Evil and won Best Actress in a sci-fi/action film for Resident Evil: Extinction from the Scream Awards in 2008.

In 2004, Jovovich was ranked No. 69 on Maxim magazine's "Top 100 Hot List", ranked No. 82 in 2005 and ranked No. 21 in 2010. Maxim also named her No. 11 on their list of "Hottest Nerd Crushes". In 2008, she was ranked No. 90 on Ask Men's Top 99 Women of 2008 List. In 2011, Jovovich attended and sang at the birthday celebration of Mikhail Gorbachev. The Actress also gave a speech in which she thanked Gorbachev, saying that when she and her family left the Soviet Union in 1980 they were sure that they would never see their relatives again and that thanks to him they have been reunited.

Jovovich and fellow model Carmen Hawk launched a line of clothing called Jovovich-Hawk in 2003. The pair opened a showroom in New York City's Greenwich Village on September 13, 2005, and the line lasted for four years. All of the dresses for Jovovich-Hawk line were designed by herself and her partner Carmen Hawk, in The atelier is based in Los Angeles, but pieces could be found at Fred Segal in Los Angeles, Harvey Nichols, and over 50 stores around the world. Vogue has praised the line for its "girl-about-town cult status most designers spend years trying to achieve."

In November 2006, the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and US Vogue nominated Jovovich-Hawk for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Award. Jovovich-Hawk was nominated as a finalist, although Doo-Ri Chung took the top prize.

In 2007, Jovovich and Hawk designed the costume for Jovovich's character in Resident Evil: Extinction. The shorts Alice, her character, wears are a variation on the 'Alice Star' Shorts from the Spring 2007 collection. In late 2007, Jovovich-Hawk signed a deal to design a diffusion collection for Target's Go International campaign, following in the footsteps of Luella, Paul & Joe and Proenza Schouler.

In late 2008, Jovovich and Hawk mutually agreed to end the Business due to increased demands on their time. Jovovich explained, "I'm an Artist. I'm not someone who can deal with shipping rates and taxes".

Jovovich currently resides in homes in Los Angeles and New York with her husband, film Writer and Director Paul W. S. Anderson, whom she married on August 22, 2009. The two met while working on the 2002 film Resident Evil, which Anderson wrote and directed, and in which Jovovich starred. Anderson proposed to Jovovich in 2003, but the two separated for a period of time before becoming a couple again. On November 3, 2007, Jovovich gave birth to their first child, daughter Ever Gabo, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. Their second child, daughter Dashiel Edan, was born on April 1, 2015.

She was also nominated for Best Horror Actress at the 2010 Scream Awards for her performance as Dr. Abigail Tyler in The Fourth Kind, and won the Hollywood Spotlight Award for Best Actress at the 14th Annual Hollywood Awards Gala for her role as Lucetta in the 2010 film Stone.

In 2011, she won the Scream Award for Best Science Fiction Actress for Resident Evil: Afterlife and in 2012 she received a nomination for Choice Movie Actress: Action from the Teen Choice Awards.

A new single called Electric Sky was released on May 18, 2012. The song was presented at the Life Ball in 2012.

In 2013, she was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress for her performance in Resident Evil: Retribution.

Jovovich appears in the upcoming Hellboy reboot which is set to be released in 2019.