Agnes Bruckner was born in Hollywood, California. She began her career at the age of eleven when she started doing commercial and subsequently landed a role on the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. Bruckner made her motion picture debut at the age of fifteen in the independent film, Blue Car, where she played a high school student involved in an affair with her teacher played by David Strathairn. Bruckner was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the category Best Female Lead for her work in Blue Car.

Since then, she has gone on to star more a dozen films and most recently played the role of Anna Nicole Smith in the Lifetime original movie, The Anna Nicole Story.