Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis was first formally described in 1955 by the American ichthyologist John Ernest Randall with its type locality given as the entrance to Keauhou Bay on Hawaii Island.

The adults look black from a distance but uniform colour is broken by many thin green stripes.

The juveniles are very different from the adults having deeper bodies with an overall colour bright orange red with many dark chevron markings.

This fish has a maximum published total length of 25 cm (9.8 in)[4] Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis has a wide distribution in the tropical Pacific Ocean from the Ryukyu Islands of southern Japan east as far as Hawaii, through most of Micronesia and French Polynesia as far south as the Pitcairn Islands and Rapa Iti.

[4] Ctenochaetus hawaiienis is popular in the aquarium trade where the juveniles are known as chevron tangs.