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Yes, I do have to explain this.
From my past, a normal fridge has an array of coils spread out over the back side.
This fridge is not like that. The back side is a solid wall. The coils are at the lower back corner of the fridge, and located inside of the rectangular volume of the fridge. In fact, it is hidden by a removal portion of the fridge's back wall. The coils are not spread out into a sheet, but stacked into a 3D cube. The fan is located between the coil stack and the compressor. It draws air across the coil stack and pushes it into the compressor. The compressor felt much warmer than the coils, so even the the air is warmed by its initial pass over the coils, it is still usable to cool the compressor. All 3 parts (coil stack, fan, compressor) are located *within* the rectangular volume of the fridge, at the lower back corner.
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Yes, Frank. Those coils are your CONDENSER coils. They perform the same function as the black coils normally seen on the back of a refrigerator. In that situation, those coils are cooled just be air convection. Your fridge has these coils at the bottom of the fridge, so they provide a "condenser fan" to provide the air flow to cool them. After the compressor compresses the freon gas to a high pressure, that gas then goes to the condensor coiles where it condenses into a liquid, losing heat as it does. The warmth you feel coming off those condensor coils is both heat from compressing the gaseous refrigerant, and heat released as it condenses into a liquid.
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All the air that is driven by the fan to cool the coils and compressor is vented out the front of the fridge through openings at the bottom. How the air gets from the lower back part of the fridge to the front, I don't know. Some mechanical duct magic. And I don't know where the intake is either. I'll try to get at the back and take a picture.
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Don't worry about that. The factory would have made sure that cool air can get into where those coils are so that your "condenser fan" can blow that warmer air out at the bottom front of your fridge. It really doesn't matter where the air is coming from, because that almost certainly won't be the cause of a smell.
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I hope I have managed to clarify the the vented air is the air pulled by the fan over the coils and pushed over the compressor.
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The refrigerant in a fridge's cooling system will carry an oil mist with it. If you ever puncture any of the refrigeration lines in an old fridge, you'll get a lot of refrigerant coming out, but you'll also see some oil come out with it.
So, the only thing I can imagine is that if there is a refrigerant leak, some oil will also come out with the refrigerant, and that may be what you're smelling.
But, if that's the case, then the fridge will stop working as the refrigerant escapes.
Maybe try and stuff some paper towels into areas you can't see to see if the paper towels get oil on them. When you have a refrigerant leak, all that appears to leak is oil because the refrigerant evaporates into a vapour, leaving only the oil mist inside it behind.
The only other thing I can think of is that if it wasn't a new fridge, it could be that there was dust on the condenser coil or condenser fan blades, and that perhaps that dist contained allergens that you are sensitive to, causing you to cough. If you have good access to the condenser coil and condenser fan, you might want to try unplugging the fridge and cleaning the coil and the fan blades.
Sorry I couldn't have been more help.