It is the only skunk that lacks a white dot or medial bar between the eyes and has primarily black body fur.

The American hog-nosed skunk has stocky legs and plantigrade feet (the entire sole of the foot touches the ground).

It has been collected in a variety of habitats in Mexico, including open desert-scrub and mesquite-grasslands, tropical areas, mountains, coastal plains, cornfields surrounded by brushland or adjacent to grassy plains and thickets of bull-horn acacia, thorn woodland, and riparian forests, characterized by live-oaks, pecans, sycamores, and Texas persimmons and an understory of briars, grasses, and weeds.

In Kleberg County, Texas, C. leuconotus occurs in mesquite-brushland, pastures, and native grassland, used exclusively for cattle ranching.

While sometimes considered a pest by crop farmers due to their rooting habits, this is largely misplaced, as it generally prefers insects to agricultural plants.

In Colorado, for instance, it was ranked as "critically imperiled because of extreme rarity (five or fewer records of occurrence in the state or less than 1,000 individuals)" as of 2006[update].

The situation is far different in Texas and Arizona, though; the populations are high enough for the species to be legally harvested throughout the year and is designated as a "fur bearer" by the United States Forest Service.