Tessa was born in the mid-1980s in Vereeniging, South Africa. She spent most of her childhood in an orphanage. During this time, she befriended a female biker who owned a nightclub which held female fighting events. After school, Tessa found a job and also became a fighter at this club. She loved fighting more than anything else, just like her namesake ancestors in the books her mother had left her.

When the club closed, she ended up fighting in an underground female fighting club in Johannesburg. Soon after, she lost her job. Although she did not plan this, she ended up in Cape Town as a nude model. Soon, she found a job as an escort at a local escort agency. This put her in contact with members of the underground female fight club in Johannesburg who had now opened their own underground female fight club near Cape Town.

Tessa was excited when she got an opportunity to fight at this new club. However, she soon learned they had no intention of allowing her to leave again. The name of the club, Club Gladiatrix, should have given her a clue, but she was still shocked when she learned she would face an old rival in a fight to the death.