Ulysses Everett McGill
Ulysses Everett McGill was imprisoned for practicing law without having the proper license. He tells his companions that he escaped from prison so that they could find the money he stashed away, but he really escaped so that he could get home to his family before his wife remarries. He corresponds to Odysseus (Ulysses) in Homer's Odyssey. Everett is a persuasive, charming, intellectual, and leader-ly individual, and he always wants to be in charge. He is also exceedingly vain, particularly about his hair, and goes to impractical ends to procure the right pomade.
Pete Hogwallop
Pete is a mysterious criminal with strong convictions and big outbursts of anger. He believes in his principles, especially loyalty, even after his cousin Washington B. Hogwallop betrays him. He dreams of opening a fine restaurant and beings its head waiter after he gets out of prison.
Delmar O'Donnell
Delmar is a criminal imprisoned for robbing a supermarket. At first he claims that he didn't commit such crimes, but later he admits that he is indeed guilty. O'Donnell is gullible and noticeably less intelligent than his companions. When he sees the congregants going to get baptized in the river, he follows excitedly, hoping to redeem himself in God's eyes. He says that he will spend his portion of Everett's nonexistent money buying back his family farm, saying that "You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land."
Tommy Johnson
Tommy Johnson is a talented black blues guitarist, who claims to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar skills. He plays "Man of Constant Sorrow" with the Soggy Bottom Boys, but leaves when they get into trouble. He is eventually discovered by the Soggy Bottom Boys at a Ku Klux Klan rally, about to be lynched.
Daniel "Big Dan" Teague
Big Dan is a dishonest man who pretends to be a bible salesman. After promising Everett and Delmar jobs as Bible salesmen, he mugs them both, brutally hitting them with a tree branch. Later, at the Ku Klux Klan rally (he is a Klansman), he sniffs out the trio of escaped convicts and reveals to the Klan that they are imposters. When the group runs, the giant burning cross at the rally falls on Dan and kills him. He is the equivalent of the Cyclops Polyphemus in The Odyssey.
Washington B. "Wash" Hogwallop
Played by Frank Collison, Washington is Pete's cousin. He removes the escapees' chains, but later betrays them by reporting them to the police.
Menelaus or "Pappy" O'Daniel
The current governor of Mississippi, who is running for reelection. He cannot seem to gain traction for his campaign, and seems to be falling behind the Reform candidate, Homer Stokes. Throughout the movie, he is plotting how to win voters. At the end, when Homer Stokes falls from grace, Pappy seizes his opportunity and aligns himself with the universally popular Soggy Bottom Boys, which promises to win him the upcoming election.
Homer Stokes
The Reform candidate for the upcoming gubernatorial election. Purports to represent the common man and has a convincing campaign. He is also the leader of the Ku Klux Klan. He loses favor with his voting base when he interrupts a performance by the Soggy Bottom Boys.
Penny
Everett's ex-wife, Penny wants what's best for her coterie of daughters. Everett doesn't measure up, so she's found herself a more financially stable new husband. When she realizes Everett is in the Soggy Bottom Boys, she decides to take him back, but not until he's retrieved her original wedding ring, a more difficult task than anyone expected.
