Oksana Vladimirovna Arbuzova was born on April 24, 1973 in Moscow.

Her father was Vladimir Evgenyevich Arbuzov (born March 14, 1937), a drilling geologist. Her mother was Valentina Stepanovna Arbuzova (née Terentyeva) (born May 30, 1943), deputy head of a department and head of the document processing and record-keeping division of the Documentation Support and Archives Department of the Staff of the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Her older sister is Elena Vladimirovna (née Arbuzova), who works in the civil service. She is married, and her son is a student at the Moscow Aviation Institute.

As a child she drew well and attended a drama club at the Palace of Pioneers. Director Leonid Belozorovich was shooting his first film, "Katenka," and the director and his assistants liked how Oksana performed in the school play "The Snow Queen," so she was entered into the Mosfilm card index.

Wide fame came with the lead role of Avariya in the 1989 youth drama "Avariya — doch menta" ("Accident — Daughter of a Cop").