Born Pola Nakszynski, she is the daughter of Klaus Kinski, who became a renowned German actor, and his first wife, the singer Gislinde Kühlbeck. After her father changed his surname to Kinski, it was changed for his children as well. Her parents divorced in 1955 when Pola was three, and she later spent time with each of her parents in the subsequent years. Her mother remarried to Herbert Kuhlbeck.

In addition to gaining early film roles, she acted at the Schauspielhaus Bochum and the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In the 1970s she worked with Peter Zadek and the Director Ivan Nagel.

From 1977 onwards, Kinski worked as a freelance actor in German-language productions. She lived in Berlin and Paris. She has also appeared in several television films, including some produced in the early 2000s.

She married Wolfgang Hoepner, a Lawyer, and they live in Ludwigshafen. They have three children: Janina (born 1978), Valentin (born 1986) and Nanouk.

In her biography, Kindermund (2013) (English: The Mouth of a Child), she told of having been sexually abused by her father between the ages of 5 and 19. She was afraid to tell anyone until she was 19, when she told her mother and stepfather. When her revelation was covered by Die Welt and other media, her half-sister Nastassja wrote, "My sister is a hero. Because she has freed her heart, her soul, and thus their Future from the burden of the mystery."