Anamaría Tijoux Merino was born on 12 June 1977 in Lille, France. She is the daughter of two Chilean exiles who fled Chile to France after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état. Her mother is the renowned Chilean sociologist María Emilia Tijoux. In 1978, her family moved to Paris, France. It was not until 1983 that Anamaría traveled to Chile and met her grandparents and extended family who stayed in the country despite the coup.