Wakka is a 23-year-old professional blitzball player who is characterized by having a long reddish-orange quiff and, being tall and muscular in appearance. He uses speech-mannerisms as saying "brudda" for "brother" and sometimes finishing sentences with "ya?" for "right?" or "okay?" In addition to being one of Yuna's guardians and childhood friends, he is captain of the Besaid Aurochs, a blitzball team that as of the beginning of Final Fantasy X went twenty-three years without winning a single game.

Wakka lost his younger brother Chappu to Sin a year before the events of Final Fantasy X, and he never fully recovered from it. He forms a close brotherly relationship with Tidus, partially fueled by his resemblance to Chappu, though Lulu constantly has to remind him that Tidus is not Chappu. As a devout follower of Yevon's teachings, Wakka believes that anyone who does not believe in Yevon, like the Al Bhed, are evil heathens, and is staunchly against the use of machina. However, he begins to question both his faith by the time Yevon's true colors are exposed to the world. Near the game's ending, Wakka denounces his prior beliefs entirely.

Six months after the events of Final Fantasy X, he marries Lulu. In Final Fantasy X-2, he becomes a father to their baby son, Vidina, a name thought up by Wakka. Wakka is voiced by Kazuya Nakai in Japanese and John DiMaggio in English. A younger version of Wakka makes a cameo appearance in Kingdom Hearts on Destiny Islands as a friend of a younger Tidus and Final Fantasy VIII's Selphie and a sparring partner who can be engaged in battle, fighting with a beach ball. He makes a smaller cameo in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as well as Kingdom Hearts coded. In Kingdom Hearts, he is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker.