The wolf eel was first formally described in 1855 by the American physician and ichthyologist William Orville Ayres with the type locality given as San Francisco Bay in California.

The specific name ocellatus means "ocellated", a reference to the eye-like spots, or ocelli, on the dorsal fin and body.

[2] Younger wolf eels are orange with big dark spots in the posterior part of the body.

[7][8] They possess powerful jaws with which they crush their prey: canine teeth in the front and molars in the posterior portion of the mouth.

It only has one dorsal fin, that extends from the head to the end of the body, with 228 to 250 flexible fishbones without soft radius.

[2] Large wolf eels are curious[13] and are rarely aggressive, but are capable of inflicting painful bites on humans.

[2] The male and female may pair for life and inhabit a cave together; the two watch their eggs together and one always stays behind when the other leaves to feed.

In some coastal northwest Native American tribes, the wolf eel was referred to as the sacred "doctorfish".