She is the second child and only daughter of Kyokugen-ryuu Karate founder Takuma Sakazaki. She has an older brother named Ryo. She is the love interest of fellow Kyokugen disciple and friend of the family Robert Garcia.
She practices the Swallow discipline of Kyokugen-ryuu Karate, having learned the family style within a year (against her father's wishes, initially). She is also the first female to be able to perform the Haoh Shoko Ken. She is often described as a genius, able to learn moves very quickly. For this reason, Yuri has a habit of parodying moves from other characters, most infamously Ryu and Akuma from Street Fighter (a way for SNK to lightly poke fun back at Capcom after the latter made Dan Hibiki).
She first appeared as a damsel in distress, kidnapped by Mr. Big in Art of Fighting 1 and rescued by Ryo and Robert. She made her playable debut in Art of Fighting 2.
Her original fighting stage was a fitness gym, and her signature theme song is named "Diet". As of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, which takes place long after the events of Art of Fighting, Yuri owns her own gym.
In the King of Fighters continuity, Yuri is a founding member of the Women Fighters Team alongside Mai Shiranui and King.
She has a voluntary verbal tic of adding "-cchi" to the end of her sentences, allegedly for the sole purpose of sounding cuter. For example, "余裕!"/"Yoyuu!" ("Easy!") becomes "余裕っち~!"/"Yoyuu-cchi~!" ("Easy peasy~!")
