Hana Rebecca Hatae was born July 15, 1988 in Tarzana, California to Akira Hatae, and Lisa Givner-Hatae, who met in college at Berkeley. Akira had come from Japan to study English, while Lisa was pre-law, and they both worked at the same Japanese restaurant. Givner-Hatae dropped out after three years to accompany Akira to Japan as he learned to be a Su Shi chef. After returning to the United States, Akira worked as a chef at the Japanese restaurant, Su Shi Ko, in Bel Air, California, eventually becoming the restaurant's manager. Later, he and Lisa became its owner, with Lisa running the front of the house. Hana has a brother, Samson, two years her senior, and a sister, Summer, nine years her junior.

After Deep Space Nine, Hatae appeared in "Polkapalooza", a 1998 episode of Family Matters, after which she stopped acting. She explained in an interview that this was due to the competitive nature of acting, and the fact that she lived far from Los Angeles, and the fact that she did not drive made auditioning difficult. She instead became involved with Sports and music, playing roller hockey for years, and taking violin lessons, though she eventually stopped playing both.

While Hana was in high school, her parents relocated Su Shi Ko from the Bel Air location where it had been for about 25 years to Thousand Oaks, where they live. The restaurant suffered from the move, and after increasing debt and a lack of customers, Su Shi Ko began to lose its prestige. Four years after Su Shi Ko's relocation, In May 2009, the restaurant was the setting for an episode of the reality TV series Kitchen Nightmares, in which Chef Gordon Ramsay attempts to save failing restaurants. Hana and her Photographer brother Sammy appear in the episode, attempting to assist in their parents' failing restaurant by working as servers. The restaurant eventually closed that August due to the economy, before the episode featuring it aired in May 2010.

As of May 2010, Hana was working as a photography assistant in Hollywood.

Hatae enjoys hiking and rock climbing. One of her favorite places to hike and explore is Malibu Creek, which her family visited often in her youth. As of 2014, she was also teaching herself how to play the violin again.