She said her family was poor, and she grew up in the Northwest Side of Chicago. Her family roots are in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico and Barrio Jagual, Patillas, Puerto Rico, and her ancestry includes Afro-Latino. They subsequently divorced and her mother remarried and had three children. Her mother was born in Puerto Rico and her father was born to Puerto Rican parents.

Machado was born in Chicago, Illinois, one of two children of Alicia Morales Ruiz and Ismael Machado.