Tulip Joshi is half Gujarati and half Armenian. Her mother was born in Lebanon and later moved to India. Tulip was brought up in Mumbai, and attended the Jamnabai Narsee School, and later Mithibai College from where she graduated in food science and chemistry. She excelled in sports, competing in athletics at the National level.She has two sisters, Selphi and Monalisa. Her sister Monalisa is married to Bollywood actor, Rajat Bedi. She has a nephew, Vivann, and niece, Vera.
Tulip Joshi entered the Femina Miss India Contest in 2000. She did not make it to the list of winners, but was noticed by many advertising agencies. She appeared in a number of advertising campaigns for big brands (Ponds, Pepsi, Siyaram, BPL, Smirnoff etc). She also appeared in a video made as a tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
