The two tourists waiting for an elevator at the One & Only Palmilla Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, were in for a shock. When the doors slid open, there inside, dangling from the ceiling air vent, was a petite blonde woman. And not just any woman, but the Canadian-born actress Elisha Cuthbert, who plays Kim Bauer (daughter of Jack) on the Fox megahit 24.

“The elevator was stuck, I’d been alone in there for 10 minutes, and it was heating up like a furnace. I thought I was going to suffocate,” says Elisha, recalling the strange vacation moment over breakfast in Hollywood. “I don’t know where I thought I was going. But I’m a doer, so I figured, ‘I will get myself out of here.’ Just as I was about to pull myself through the air duct, the doors opened.” What did she do then? “I said, ‘Hi!’” she replies, grinning.

The truth is, Elisha’s petite five-foot-three-inch frame belies her strength. The 26-year-old emanates a “been there” vibe-not exactly hardened, but she’s certainly no pushover. Her dark eyebrows and platinum hair (she dyes it herself) pack a visual wallop, but she softens the look with jeans, an oversize gray sweater, and a black scarf. For her WH interview she’s chosen a low-key neighborhood café on Sunset Boulevard, where she munches on fruit and granola-but she showed up here in a Porsche.

Which is kind of appropriate, actually. In her films—Old School, House of Wax, and The Girl Next Door among them—Elisha has carved out a niche as the hottest girl you might know in real life. She’s even become something of a fixture on “sexy” lists, though she’s not the type to obsess over her press.

“I don’t check,” she says, laughing. “In fact, I don’t read any Internet stuff. It seems like a dark and evil place. I have a few friends who are in the spotlight, who’ve called me in the middle of the night crying. I go, ‘What are you doing? Get off your damn computer!’ I mean, I don’t need to know that Joe in his basement in Nebraska prefers Jessica Alba.”

Elisha did, however, spend a few years sampling what she calls “the hype and glory” of being a young Hollywood starlet. “For a long time I was naïve about who I was surrounded by,” she recalls. “I got caught up in the L.A. scene.” She wasn’t a party animal; it was more like going out to dinner every night with a circle she enjoyed but didn’t quite fit into. “Not that they were bad people,” she says. “I just couldn’t ask any of them to drive me to the airport.”

She’s spent the last year edging away from all that, in favor of truer companions, like her boyfriend, Calgary Flames hockey defenseman Dion Phaneuf. “It’s the first real, healthy relationship of my life,” she says. “I think you learn something from every relationship. But I’ve spent too much time with people who weren’t worth spending that much time with.”

That may or may not be a reference to her ex-boyfriend, former Dallas Stars center Sean Avery, who in December publicly referred to her as “sloppy seconds”-a comment that got him dropped from the Stars and suspended by the National Hockey League for “inappropriate public comments.”

“I think the way the NHL handled it was impressive, and I was thankful,” Elisha says. “He was just another person who was in my life under false pretenses. He wanted the attention of dating an actress. But I don’t regret my past relationships. It’s more, ‘Why was I not thinking right?’ I always want to please everybody; a lot of entertainers are like that. The trick is knowing when you’re compromising [too much].”

Elisha has been trying to find that perfect balance her whole life. At age 9, growing up in Montreal, she announced to her parents (father Kevin, who runs an auto business, and mother Patricia, a homemaker who used to play on a women’s hockey team) that she was going to be an actress. That’s a pretty typical dream for a self-professed “outgoing goofball” who always wanted to be the center of attention. What’s atypical is that by 11, she’d made it happen. Elisha appeared in Canadian TV shows and films and cohosted the Discovery Kids’ series Popular Mechanics for Kids. Right after high school, she Beetled to L.A., promising her folks that if she hadn’t found work in six months she’d come home and go to college. “I didn’t want to be delusional. I wanted a finish line,” she says. “In the last week, 24 happened. It was my 24th audition.”

These days Elisha’s drive has downshifted—a little. “I used to be hustle-hustle, work-work,” she says. “I woke up in the morning and went to bed thinking about acting. I wasn’t unhealthy, but I’d say I was borderline.” The key to happiness for her now: being less consumed by her career objectives. “Kiefer used to say to me, ‘Don’t worry about what your next job will be,’ and I’d go, ‘Ha-ha, yeah, nice try.’ But for the first time, I’m trying to not worry. I don’t feel like I have to prove anything; I’m not in a panic anymore. I’m certainly not finished, but I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I’m concentrating on other things in my life.”

On her diversionary to-do list: reading (she just finished Nikki Sixx’s Heroin Diaries), painting (mainly abstracts and portraits), puttering around in her kitchen (“All the appliances are from a restaurant called Koi—they had bought too many—so they’re huge. I have a flat griddle and an industrial hood fan. It’s like having a Benihana in my house!”), and following her favorite sport (she was thrilled when Canada won its fifth World Junior Hockey Championship in January). And for the first time in her life, Elisha has joined a gym, where she works out for two hours a day. She loves the range of classes—from boot camp to booty burning to yoga. “Once I start one, I can’t quit; I’m too competitive,” she says. “I try to get to the gym early, ride the bike for an hour, push to that 400-calorie burn, and then do a class.”

Elisha also logs a lot of air miles visiting Phaneuf in Calgary. “Until now, I’d thought I was cursed in love,” she says. “I thought, ‘I got what I wanted in my career, and too bad, you can’t have everything.’” What’s more, her parents set the bar high. “They were meant to be together. It’s awe-inspiring. I don’t want marriage if it’s not going to be what they have,” she says. “But now I know more what I want in a partner—someone with family values, who has something going on in his life.”

Of course, there are times when being alone has its advantages too. Not long after the elevator incident in Los Cabos, Elisha had another mishap, this time in Austin, Texas. She found herself in an elevator that plunged 15 floors, four floors at a time.

“It was terrifying—the emergency brake screeching, me holding on to my luggage for dear life,” she says. “But I prefer to be alone [in those situations], because you don’t want someone with you panicking and making it worse.” Somewhere, Jack Bauer is smiling.

Elisha’s Favorite Things:
Go-to accessory: “Scarves. I have all kinds, tons and tons, prints and solids, silk and pashmina. I’m always cold, so scarves are really great.”

Beauty item: “I’m a huge lip balm person. I love By Terry. It’s extremely expensive, but it feels so good. It has a beautiful, floral smell, too.”

De-stresser: “Steam shower. I have a steamer in my house, I just sit in there for a long time, and suffocate myself with steam. De-tox, melt away all my problems.

Room in your house: “My kitchen. All the appliances are from an actual restaurant. They were bought for the restaurant Koi, and they’d overbought ovens. I have the most amazing industrial hood fan, it would suck me up through it, I swear to God. I try not to turn it on. It’s so loud, you can’t even talk while you’re cooking. ”

Guilty pleasure: “Junk food: I’m a big chocolate fan. Lindor–the little balls–don’t give me a bag of those, they’ll be gone. They’re so creamy and good. I don’t know how they stay melty like that, even if you put them in the fridge. I like all chocolate, though.”

Celebrity crush: “Never had one, not even as a kid. I think I’ve got to understand and meet someone to have a connection to them.”

Favorite workout song: “Lady Gaga, ‘Just Dance’. It’s an upbeat tune. And I love Sia, she’s terrific.”

Favorite designer: “I have so many. I love Balenciaga. And Nike. How about that for a gamut? I love Nike’s workout stuff, it’s so great. The DryFit! Great stuff.

Favorite sport to play: “Volleyball. And I like to ski, too.”

Favorite charity: “The Michael J. Fox Foundation. He’s Canadian; I grew up watching him. He’s an idol of mine.”