E. imbricata has the appearance of a sea turtle. Like the rest of its family, the turtle has a flat body and fins like arms used for swimming. Photograph of the upper part of a swimming turtle with four flippers open and a shell face. Serrated edges of the carapace and overlapping skating can be found in this individual The average adult hawksbill turtle is known to grow up to 1 meter long and weighs about 80 kg. The largest hawksbill turtle ever caught weighed 127 kg. The turtle's shell, or carapace, has a yellow background arrangement with a combination of irregular light and dark stripes dominated by black and brown spots radiating to the sides. There are several characteristics of the hawksbill turtle that distinguish it from other turtle species.

One of them is the shape of an elongated and tapered head and has a beak that resembles a mouth (hence the common name given), and its beak is sharper and more prominent than the others. The hawksbill turtle's arms have two visible claws on each fin. Adult hawksbill turtles are usually found on tropical coral reefs. They are usually seen resting in caves and around coral reefs throughout the day. As a highly migratory species, they can inhabit a variety of habitats, from the open ocean to lagoons and mangrove swamps in estuaries. Little is known about the habitat preferences of early life E. imbricata; like a turtle other young, they are classed as perfect pelagic, remaining in the sea until adulthood.

Hawksbill turtles are omnivores, with sea sponges as their main diet. In the Caribbean, 70–95% of hawksbill turtles feed on sponges. However, like most spongivores, they only eat certain species and not others. Populations in the Caribbean mainly feed on prey belonging to the orders Astroforida, Spiroforida, and Hadromerida in the class Demospongiae.

Apart from eating sponges, hawksbill turtles also eat algae, cnidarians, Ctenophores, and other jellyfish, as well as sea anemones. They also eat dangerous jellyfish such as fire jellyfish (Physalia physalis) from the hydrozoa class. Hawksbill turtles close their eyes to protect their eyes when eating cnidarians. The sting of the fire jellyfish does not work on the turtle's head layer.

Hawksbill turtles have high toughness and resistance to their prey. Some of the sponges they eat, such as Aaptos aaptos, Chondrilla nucula, Tethya actinia, Spheciospongia vesparium, and Suberites domuncula, are highly (often lethal) toxic to other organisms. In addition, hawksbill turtles prefer to consume sponge species that contain significant amounts of spiculic silica, such as Ancorina, Geodia (G. gibberosa, Ecionemia, and Placospongia.

Hawksbill turtles mate twice a year in remote lagoons off the coast where they nest on islands monitored by the group. Atlantic hawksbill breeding season lasts from April to November. Indian Ocean populations, such as the Seychelles hawksbill population, breed from September to February.[9] After mating, the female hawksbill will drag her body up to the beach at night. The female turtle cleans the area around her and makes a hole for storing eggs using her hind fins, then removes the eggs from her body and covers them with sand. E. imbricata nests in the Caribbean and Florida typically contain about 140 eggs. After a long process, the female then returns to the sea.

Baby turtles, namely hatchlings, usually weighing less than 24 grams, will crawl out of their holes at night about two months later. The newly hatched hatchlings are dark in color, with a heart-shaped carapace measuring about 25 cm (9.8 in) long. They instinctively crawl towards the sea when attracted by the reflection of the moonlight on the water (can also be other sources of lighting such as street lamps and lighting). When moving under cover of darkness, baby turtles that do not reach the water at dawn can be preyed upon by shorebirds, beach crabs, and other predators.

The life history of the hawksbill turtle when it was young is unknown. On reaching the sea, the hatchlings are considered to have entered the pelagic stage of life (like other sea turtles) for an indefinite period of time. Although the growth rate of hawksbill turtles is unknown, when juvenile turtles reach a size of 35 cm (14 in), they transition from a pelagic lifestyle to life on coral reefs.

Hawksbill turtles enter adulthood after the age of 30 years. They are believed to live for 30 to 50 years in the wild. Like other sea turtles, most of the hawksbill's life is spent in solitude; they met just to get a partner. The animal's interest in migration is very high. Because of their hard carapace, the only predators of adult hawksbill turtles are sharks, estuarine crocodiles, octopuses, and some species of pelagic fish.

A series of biotic and abiotic signs, such as individual genetics, both in quantity and quality or population density, can trigger the maturation of reproductive organs and gamete production, and thus can determine sexual maturity. Like most reptiles, all sea turtles of the same aggregation cannot reach sexual maturity at the same size and age. Maturity occurs between the ages of 10 to 25 years for the Caribbean hawksbill turtle. Turtles nesting in the Indo-Pacific region experience at least 30 to 35 years of adulthood.