Te Tamaki used to watch her elder brother play rugby for Hamilton Boys' High School and thought the sport was not for her, as it was too scary and had too much contact. But the Girls' High coach, former Black Fern Crystal Kaua, convinced her to start the sport. It became her dream to make it to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She was contracted to the New Zealand women's sevens team in January 2016 and made her debut at the USA Women's Sevens. Te Tamaki was selected for New Zealand's women's sevens team to the 2016 Summer Olympics. She won a silver medal with the team and broke a New Zealand record held since the 1952 Summer Olympics by becoming the country's youngest female medallist. However, she only held the honour for 18 months until the record broken again by 16-year-old Zoi Sadowski-Synnott at the 2018 Winter Olympics.