Kitaen was born in San Diego, California, in 1961, the daughter of Linda (née Taylor), a housewife and a former beauty pageant participant, and Terry Kitaen, an employee of a neon sign company. Julie began using the name "Tawny" at the age of 12, on her own initiative.

Kitaen appeared in several videos in the 1980s for the band Whitesnake, including the hits "Here I Go Again", "Still of the Night", "Is This Love," and "The Deeper The Love." She was then dating Whitesnake's lead singer, David Coverdale, to whom she was later briefly married.

Kitaen began her acting career in 1983 with a minor role in the television movie Malibu. In 1984, she starred as the title character of the erotic-adventure movie The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak, also called Gwendoline. She also co-starred in the movie Bachelor Party as the bride-to-be of a young Tom Hanks, and was the star of the 1986 horror movie Witchboard. She also starred in the 1997 movie "Dead Tides" with the Wrestler Roddy Piper

Kitaen dated Ratt Guitarist Robbin Crosby during and after high school. She followed the bands to LA in the late 70s to find a career of her own. Kitaen married Whitesnake singer David Coverdale in 1989. Coverdale and Kitaen divorced in 1991.

Kitaen was also in 19 episodes of the TV series The New WKRP in Cincinnati from 1991 to 1993 as a night-time DJ named Mona Loveland; in the show, her night-time program was called Midnight With Mona.

She had recurring parts in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and co-hosted America's Funniest People from 1992 to 1994.

Kitaen was married to baseball player Chuck Finley from 1997 to 2002. In 2002, Kitaen was charged with domestic violence for an incident involving Finley, whom she had kicked in the face repeatedly with high heeled shoes. Three days later, Finley filed for divorce. After a plea bargain, Kitaen agreed to "enter a spousal battery counseling program and avoid contact with Finley." The couple had been married for five years and had two daughters together.

In November 2006, prosecutors charged Kitaen with possessing 15 grams of cocaine in her San Juan Capistrano home in Orange County. The authorities said her two children were home at the time and Kitaen had given deputies permission for the search. In December 2006, she entered a six-month rehabilitation program in exchange for the dismissal of a felony drug possession charge.

On September 26, 2009, Kitaen was arrested for driving under the influence in Newport Beach, California. The following July, she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor DWI and was sentenced to a couple days in jail, ordered to attend a first offender alcohol program and required to perform 64 hours of community Service.