Men specialize in hunting using bows and arrows treated with poison. They are highly skilled trackers and can follow animals for hours. Women forage in larger parties, and usually bring home berries, baobab fruit, and tubers. Both men and women forage cooperatively for honey and fruit, and honey is particularly important to the Hadza diet, composing about 10-20% of all caloric intake. For harvesting honey or fruit from large trees such as the baobab, the Hadza beat pointed sticks into the trunk of the tree as ladders and climb to the hives. Once the honey-hunter has located the bee nest, he uses smoke to subdue the bees, and his axe to chop into the tree and open the bee nest. During the wet season, the Hadza diet is composed mostly of honey, some fruit, tubers, and occasional meat. However, there is rarely concern about food. As one researcher who spent time among the Hadza reported:

"In Hadza-land nothing is wasted or killed unnecessarily, but they eat an amazing variety of plant and animal species (around 600, most of which are birds) compared with us in the West. My other lasting impression was how little time they spent getting food. It appeared as though it took just a few hours a day – as simple as going round a large supermarket. Any direction you walked there was food – above, on and below ground."

The Hadza eat some of the most energy dense food found anywhere in nature, giving them an incredibly healthy diet. They spend 3-5 hours on average per day "working" (hunting/gathering/obtaining resources). They also take frequent breaks throughout the day for leisure time, including smoking cannabis (marijuana) from stone pipes. Hadza children are mostly free to choose how they spend their time (and they play frequently), but they also make considerable contributions to the household, including helping with childcare.

The Hadza are organized into bands, or camps, of about 20-30 people. There is no tribal or other governing hierarchy, and almost all decisions are made by reaching an agreement through discussion. Hadza are egalitarian, but the elderly do receive more respect. Women are considered more or less equal to men. This egalitarianism means there is typically little conflict, and when conflict does arise, it may be resolved by one of the parties voluntarily moving to another camp. The Hadza also engage in cooperative child rearing, where many individuals (both related and unrelated) care for the children ("it takes a village"), likely reflecting the belief that it is in everyone's interest to raise children well.

The Hadza do not stay in settled villages but rather migrate regularly. Camps are abandoned when someone falls ill and dies, as illness is associated with the place they fell ill. There is also seasonal migration between dry-season refuges, better hunting grounds while water is more abundant, and areas with large numbers of tubers or berry trees when they are in season. If a man kills a particularly large animal such as a giraffe far from home, a camp will temporarily relocate to the kill site (smaller animals are brought back to the camp). Shelters can be built in a few hours, and most of the possessions owned by an individual can be carried on their backs.

Typically, the Hadza are monogamous. After marriage, the husband and wife are free to live where they decide, which may be with the husband or wife's family. It tends to be more common to live with the wife's family. Hadza adults have frequently lived into their sixties, and some have even reached their seventies or eighties. However, it's important to note that Hadza do not keep track of time and age exactly as the Western world does, and therefore these life expectancies can vary.

The Hadza do not follow a formal religion, engage in worship or hold a belief in an afterlife. They offer prayers to Ishoko (the Sun) or to Haine (the husband of Ishoko) during a hunt. Uttering Ishoko's name can mean a greeting, a good wish to someone for a successful hunt. They also hold rituals such as the monthly epeme dance for men at the new moon and the less frequent maitoko circumcision and coming-of-age ceremony for women.

Epeme is the Hadza concept of manhood, hunting, and the relationships between sexes. "True" adult men are called epeme men, which they become by killing large game, usually in their early 20s. Being an epeme comes with an advantage - only epeme men are allowed to eat certain parts of large game animals, such as warthog, giraffe, buffalo, wildebeest, and lion. The parts of these animals that are typically considered epeme are the kidney, lung, heart, neck, tongue, and genitals. Epeme men also participate in a special ritual dance conducted in complete darkness when the moon is not visible. One man dances at a time, wearing a black cape, ostrich-feather headdress, and bells around his ankles, as the women watch. The man will stamp his foot to provide a beat, shake a gourd maraca, and sing. After a few rounds of this performance, the women will get up and sing and dance around the man. After one man goes, he gives the dressings to another man and the dance repeats.