Oogie Boogie is the main antagonist of the film. Oogie Boogie is essentially the Bogeyman, resembling a large burlap sack. When Oogie Boogie is defeated, it is revealed that he is a colony of bugs wrapped in sacking.
Oogie Boogie did not appear in Tim Burton's original poem, but Burton later sketched a portrait of what appeared to be a potato sack man with horrible things inside. The Oogie puppet was two feet high, twice the height of the other puppets. In his autobiography Burton on Burton, Burton says that Oogie Boogie was loosely inspired by Cab Calloway's 1932 appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon, and that he asked Danny Elfman to make Oogie's song in "Nightmare" slightly resemble Calloway's 1931 recording of the song "Minnie the Moocher". Elfman ended up referencing the Betty Boop cartoon The Old Man of the Mountain (1933), also featuring Calloway. Santa's line "Well, what are you going to do?" and Oogie Boogie's response of "I'm gonna do the best I can!" are direct quotes from this cartoon. Another idea for Oogie's identity was for him to be Dr. Finklestein in disguise, gaining revenge on Jack and Sally, but it was not pursued past storyboards since Tim Burton scrapped the idea. This is visible on the Special Edition DVD.
Unlike all the other inhabitants of Halloween Town, who are merely monsters who scare people simply because they enjoy it as a celebration of their skill and fun, it appears that Oogie is truly evil. It is suggested that his sadistic nature had resulted in his exile from the mainstream Halloween Town. He lives in an underground lair full of torture devices, each of which features a casino-like appearance. Red skeletons - implied to be the remains of previous victims - are in several of the devices, and overhanging chains are used as perches by skeletal bats. Oogie-Boogie's lair, during his theme song, is lit with black lights in the style of a cheap funhouse. Under these, Oogie himself glows bright green, similar to a glow stick. After the lights dim, however, the bright color is sapped from his lair, transforming its appearance into that of a dank, cellar-like dungeon. Above his lair is the clubhouse of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who feed him bugs regularly via a metal chute. It is at first believed that Oogie cannot be killed or die but it is later revealed he can be destroyed if his brain, the lead bug, is destroyed. In the movie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel kidnap Santa Claus and (against the wishes of Jack, who holds Oogie in great contempt) send him down to Oogie Boogie's lair, where he is bound to a giant roulette wheel. According to deleted song material (found in the soundtrack version), Oogie plans to add "Sandy Claws" to his new batch of Snake and Spider Stew, to "add a little Spice". Sally, after finding out Santa's fate, attempts to rescue him but is captured herself. Oogie then tortures and tries to kill Sally and Santa Claus, but is destroyed when Jack pulls a thread loose from him, which causes the majority of his bugs to fall into the lava pit. The lead bug is then squashed by Santa after it falls next to the pit. The rest of the bugs scurry off after this.
In The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King, Oogie's origins and the birth of his rivalry with Jack were revealed. As it turns out, he once had his own holiday, Bug Day, that was (most likely) forgotten by the people of the real world and thus vanished. Unfortunately, Oogie escaped, found Halloween Town and decided that it would be the new Bug Day. He and his army of insects invaded the town and nearly took it over. Jack found out and he defeated the bugs and Oogie. Oogie survived the battle, learned to fear the Pumpkin King, and was banished to his underground lair.
In the 2005 video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, Oogie was resurrected by his henchmen Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who sewed him together. He quickly deceived the residents of Halloween Town and tricked the townspeople into making traps for Jack stating that Jack wouldn't return if they can make an even scarier Halloween for next year. Oogie attempted to become the Seven Holidays King. He successfully kidnapped the real leaders and tried to murder Santa Claus again, but his plans were foiled by Jack. Desperate, Oogie puts up a fight in the junkyard by turning into a gigantic junk-filled version of himself named "Mega-Oogie", but he is again destroyed.
Oogie also appears with other in Disney Halloween events such as the Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland, and the fireworks show HalloWishes at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World during "Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party" separate-admission ("hard ticket") event.
Despite the fact that he is hated for the most part by the other inhabitants of Halloween Town, it appears they still allow him to take part in their celebration, as his shadow makes an appearance in the opening musical "This Is Halloween" as the "shadow on the moon at night, filling your dreams to the brim with fright". In the version of "This is Halloween" that was heard on "The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge," a different voice was heard when it came to the shadow on the moon part.