Moghbeli was born on in Bad Nauheim, West Germany, to Fereshteh and Kamy Moghbeli. Her parents had fled Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and subsequently moved the family to Baldwin, New York. Moghbeli attended Baldwin Senior High School in New York and attended Advanced Space Academy at Space Camp in Alabama while she was a student. She earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering with information technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and played volleyball and basketball for the MIT Engineers.