At club level he played for Golden–Kilfeacle and Éire Óg Annacarty and was the left wing-forward on the Tipperary senior hurling team that won the 1937 All-Ireland Championship.
[1] A native of Golden, County Tipperary, O'Donnell was educated at Rockwell College, where he won a Harty Cup medal in 1930.
He began his club career with Golden–Kilfeacle but won a Tipperary Senior Championship medal with Éire Óg Annacarty in 1943, after transferring to them in January of that year.
[2] O'Donnell made his first appearance for the Tipperary senior hurling team during the 1934 Munster Championship and had a number of successes as a forward over the following decade.
In 1937 he won an All-Ireland Championship medal when Tipperary defeated Kilkenny, having earlier won a Munster Championship medal.