Karen Hepp was born in Charlestown, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1969. Lucy and Robert W. Hepp are her parents. In Malvern, Pennsylvania, her parents worked as real estate agents for Prudential Fox & Roach.
She received her schooling at the Pennsylvania-based Agnes Irwin School, a day school for girls preparing for college.
Three AP courses—AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics—were the focus of Anchor. She earned a BA in Broadcast Journalism from New York University in Manhattan, New York, in 1989.
