Nina Šenk studied composition with Pavel Mihelčič at the Ljubljana Music Academy, and later in Dresden with Lothar Voigtländer. In 2008, she obtained a Master's degree from the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts under the tutelage of Matthias Pintscher. From 2008 to 2010, she was composer-in-residence with the Staatstheater Cottbus Orchestra in Germany.

Šenk has been awarded numerous accolades, including the European Prize for the Best Composition at the Young Euro Classic Festival for her Violin Concerto in 2004, first prize at the Weimarer Frühjahrstage for Movimento fluido in 2008, a Prešeren Fund Prize en 2017 and the Johann Joseph Fux Prize in 2021 for her opera Canvas.

Her music has been programmed at numerous festivals in Germany, Austria and Slovenia, including the Salzburger Festspiele, Young Euro Classic Berlin, Kasseler Musiktage, Musica Viva Munich, Frankfurter Positionen, Weimarer Frühjahrstage, Heidelberger Frühling, Ljubljana Summer Festival Slowind Festival and Slovenian Music Days, as well as at the Takefu Festival in Japan, and the New York Philharmonic Biennial. Her works have been performed by orchestras and ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic, Staatstheater Cottbus Orchestra, Young Euro Classic Festival Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Mosaik, London Sinfonietta, United Berlin, Slowind, Ensemble Aleph, Altera Veritas, MD7, DC8 Ensemble Concorde, and the Berlin Kammersymphonie.

Since 2019 she is an associate member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, artistic director of the Concert Atelier Concert Series of the Slovenian Society of Composers since 2015 and of the Concert Series Koncertni abonma Ribnica since 2018 and member of the organisational board of the international contemporary music festival New Music Forum Ljubljana since 2020.