Vergara was discovered by a photographer while walking a Colombian beach. Soon, she was presented with attractive offers in modeling and TV work, and followed that course. Having been raised rather conservatively and devoutly religious, this was a bit overwhelming at first. In an article in the January 2002 Maxim magazine, Vergara was described as "apprehensive about doing her first TV commercial—until her Catholic schoolteachers gave her permission to take the job" . She made her first public appearance at the age of 17 in a Pepsi commercial that was widely telecast all over Latin America. In order to support her son, mother, and younger siblings who needed her financial support in the absence of her father, who had departed the family, she dropped out of college in order to earn good wages.

Vergara moved to Bogotá at the age of 20, where she worked as a model on the runway and on TV. From 1995 to 1999, she was co-host with Fernando Fiore on Fuera de Serie ("Out of the Ord