Before dedicating her talents to rugby, Ilona Maher played field hockey, basketball, and soccer (via USA Rugby). Maher played the sport at Quinnipiac University, where she earned All-American Honors and helped lead her team to secure three titles at the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association. Maher also won the MA Sorensen Award in 2017, which is reserved for the best women's rugby player in college. Aside from her impressive college career, the 5'10” star also competed at international tournaments, including the 2018 Paris Sevens Tournament and Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018. So far, she has competed in six World Series, as either a center or prop.

At the Tokyo Olympics, Maher helped her team make it to the quarterfinals (via NBC). Though the women's rugby team ultimately lost to Great Britain 21-12, they performed very well. In an interview with Access, Maher reflected on the upset and the TikTok videos she made following her team's disqualification. She said, "I'm in a lot of pain mentally and emotionally and I think it was kind of cool to let my followers know athletes have humor but we're human." She added that she's "healing" from the loss and making even more TikTok videos to distract herself.