She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Gender Studies from the University of Southern California. Her research focuses on gender and sport participation and gender in sports media coverage. She has published in the Sociology of Sport Journal, Sociological Perspectives, and the Journal of Sport and Social Issues, as well as in several edited books and anthologies. Cooky is the co-author (along with Michael Messner) of the report, Gender in Televised Sport: News and Highlight Shows: 1989-2009, which has been downloaded over 3500 times in 48 states and 68 different countries. A rising star in sport sociology, in 2008 she was awarded the Dorothy Harris Women's Sports Foundation Dissertation Scholarship.