The character's story arc began with Andy taking over Dalton's position as the leader of his criminal organization, The Firm, and becoming the newly established crime kingpin of Walford in the borough's local community named Albert Square.

Soon afterwards, Andy went on to develop a mutual friendship with Dalton's protege-turned-killer Dennis Rickman (Nigel Harman); establish a relationship with local wayward Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), which led to the pair having a wedding that ended with Kat jilting Andy in favor of his love rival Alfie Moon (Shane Richie); repetitively clash with Dennis' girlfriend and Kat's daughter Zoe (Michelle Ryan) after he blackmails her mother into sleeping with him to get revenge on Alfie; humiliate Dennis' illegitimate father Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) after defeating him in a high-stakes poker game and then exposing his antics to his adopted daughter Sharon (Letitia Dean); feign a romance and subsequent marriage with Kat's best-friend Sam Mitchell (Kim Medcalf) in order to extract control of her family empire; instigate a feud with Sam's cousin Billy (Perry Fenwick) after the latter attempts to warn Sam's mother, Peggy (Barbara Windsor), about his scheme to exploit her financial interests; arrange for Billy's companion Minty Peterson (Cliff Parisi) to get beaten up over his romantic feelings for Sam; build an unlikely friendship with his secretary Pat Evans (Pam St Clement); organize the death of employee Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) in retribution for attempting to entrap Andy into a police sting operation over his criminal activities; spark a conflict with Paul's adopted father, Patrick (Rudolph Walker), after the latter discovers the truth about his son's fate; and became enemies with Alfie's two cousins, Jake (Joel Beckett) and Danny (Jake Maskall), after having their grandmother Nana (Hilda Braid) attacked in retaliation for the pair stealing his car and later assaulting him.

Eventually, Andy's villainous reign reached its conclusion towards the show's 20th anniversary episode — when Jake and Danny's mob boss, Johnny Allen (Billy Murray), arrived on the square and proceeded to usurp his position as both the square's reigning top dog and Walford's undisputed crime kingpin.

This ultimately led to Johnny killing Andy by throwing him off a motorway bridge, thus ending the character's duration on the programme.

Andy Hunter first appears in June 2003 as the representative of Jack Dalton (Hywel Bennett), the reigning gangland kingpin of Walford — a fictionalized borough in East London — and leader of the city's criminal organization: The Firm.

After rewarding Dennis with his £20,000, Dalton plans to have him killed and has Andy summon Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden) — the square's local hardman — to his office so he can carry out the task.

Phil initially complies, but changes his mind when Dennis offers to kill Dalton himself so that the pair would be free from their gangland tormentor.

However, it was at that point where is transpired that Dalton has previously ordered the murder of Dennis' father Den Watts (Leslie Grantham) in February 1989.

Later on, Andy confronts Phil just as he is about to go on a holiday with his fiancée Kate Morton (Jill Halfpenny) and daughter Louise (Rachel Cox).

He quickly sparks a relationship with local wayward, Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace), even though she originally turned him down for a date in The Queen Victoria public house.

The two later go to bed together, which is secretly filmed by Andy as he had set up a hidden video camera to record everything — as part of his plan to get revenge on Alfie for ruining his wedding to Kat.

By then, Andy has established himself as the square's newly reigning top dog — a trait which formerly belonged to Phil, until he was forced on the run after Den and Dennis set him up for armed robbery during the Mitchell and Watts' family feud.

Andy also cements his position as Walford's undisputed crime kingpin, in the midst of expanding his criminal empire, up to the point where he summons his henchman Eddie (Daren Elliott Holmes) to help maintain his status.

As time goes on, Kat's daughter Zoe (Michelle Ryan) begins dating Dennis, and soon finds out about how Andy blackmailed her mother into sleeping with him.

In the midst of forging his relationship with Sam, and prior to ending their marriage, Andy decides to expand into drug trafficking and employs her next-door neighbour Paul Trueman (Gary Beadle) into the operation.

However, Paul ends up getting arrested, and he is forced to grass Andy to the police in order to avoid facing the risk of a prison sentence.

After ordering Eddie to investigate the pair, Andy learns that Jake and Danny are working for local crime boss Johnny Allen (Billy Murray) — who soon arrives on the square himself.

This provokes Andy into getting revenge on Jake and Danny by arranging for their grandmother, Nana (Hilda Braid), to be mugged in their house and for his goons to steal her beloved ring.

Shortly afterwards, Andy vows to get one over on Johnny, and hatches a plan to steal his £750,000 from the transaction deal; he later ropes Danny into helping with his scheme.

However, before betraying him, Andy continues to antagonize Alfie by arranging for the local market to be trashed — which leaves most of the neighborhood feeling traumatized.

While Den's murder remains a mystery to the square, Andy's death becomes public knowledge when the police are informed about his fate — which is depicted to be a suicide.

Eventually, in March 2006, Johnny confesses his killings to the police, at the request of his daughter Ruby (Louisa Lytton) when she learns the truth about her father ordering Dennis to be murdered.

Later, in October 2006, Andy's death is avenged by Ruby's boyfriend Sean Slater (Robert Kazinsky) when he causes Johnny to have a fatal heart attack, upon taunting him in a prison visit.

Higgs auditioned for the role in April 2003 and won the part of EastEnders' new "bad guy", who made his first appearance in July that year as a member of the gangster organisation known as The Firm.

It was speculated that the decision to have Higgs written out of the show was to make way for the introduction of Billy Murray as Johnny Allen, whom critics stated made Andy "look like small fry".

In 2020, Sara Wallis and Ian Hyland from The Daily Mirror placed Andy 99th on their ranked list of the Best 100 EastEnders characters of all time, calling him "Walford's criminal kingpin".