Reece is a former professional volleyball player and former fashion model.

In high school, Gabrielle excelled at basketball and played volleyball on the side. Many colleges started recruiting her because of her abilities in sports. She decided to accept an offer from Florida State University (FSU) when they offered her a volleyball scholarship where she also majored in communications. Florida State inducted Gabrielle into the Florida State University Athletics Hall of Fame. Since then she has played for years on professional volleyball tours.

Before graduating from FSU, Gabrielle started modeling. She has appeared on the covers of several magazines including Shape, Women's Sports & Fitness, Outside, ELLE, and Life. She also appeared on the cover of Playboy, with an accompanying pictorial, in January 2001.

Outside of volleyball, she published an autobiography, co-written with Karen Karbo, entitled Big Girl in the Middle. Gabrielle also writes a column for Women's Sports & Fitness magazine.

In 2008, she released Gabrielle Reece: Fit & Healthy Prenatal Workouts with exercise guru Mike Monroe. For 2008, Reece was the spokeswoman for Simply Nutrilite, a line developed by Quixtar.