Kanikka Kapur received her early schooling at Delhi Public School, Mathura Road and graduated from Delhi University with a degree in journalism and public communication. Kapur was passionate about acting and films from an early age. At age 13, she began working in short films. She also participated in several theatre shows while she was a student. Kapur began her modelling career when she was 18 and went on to win a number of pageants, including Miss Mood Indigo in 2013, Femina Style Diva North in 2014, and Manappuram Miss Queen of India in 2015. Additionally, she won the title of Miss Asia 2015, which came with a cash reward of Rs. Five lakhs, at the Le Meridian in Kochi. In 2015, Kapur entered the acting industry with her debut role as Vaishnavi in the Telugu film Tippu (2015). She later made an appearance on India's Next Superstars (2018), a reality competition TV show, where she performed in front of eminent filmmakers Rohit Shetty and Karan Johar. In 2019, she made a cameo in the Hindi film A Gift of Love: Sifar (2019) (2019) and the music video for Noor (2019) (2019). She has also appeared in Hindi TV series like Ek Duje Ke Vaaste 2 (2020) (2020), College Romance (2018) (2018), ImMATURE (2019) (2019), Date with Senior Office Romance (2022) (2022), The Great Indian Stud (2022) (2022), and Modern Parivaar (Diwali Special) (2021) (2021). Besides TV shows and films, Kapur has appeared in a number of ads for brands like Samsung and Rexona.