Background Assessment of quality in the perioperative period is critical to ensure good patient care. Textbook outcomes (TO) have been proposed to combine several parameters into a single defined quality metric. The association of preoperative body mass index (BMI) with incidences of achieving or not achieving TO (non-TO) among patients undergoing hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was characterized. Methods Patients who underwent curative-intent hepatectomy for HCC between 2015 and 2018 were identified from a multicenter database. These patients were divided into three groups based on preoperative BMI: low-BMI (<= 18.4 kg/m(2)), normal-BMI (18.5-24.9 kg/m(2)), and high-BMI (>= 25.0 kg/m(2)). The incidences of non-TO among these three groups were compared. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify whether there was any independent association between preoperative BMI and non-TO. Results Among 1206 patients, 100 (8.3%), 660 (54.7%), and 446 (37.0%) were in the low-BMI, normal-BMI, and high-BMI groups, respectively. The incidence of non-TO was 65.6% in the whole cohort. The incidence of non-TO was significantly higher among patients in the low- and high-BMI cohorts versus the normal-BMI cohort (75.0% and 74.7% versus 58.0%, both P < 0.01). After adjustment of other confounding factors on multivariate analysis, low-BMI and high-BMI were independently associated with higher incidences of non-TO compared with normal-BMI (OR: 1.98 and 2.27, both P < 0.05). Conclusions Two out of three patients did not achieve TO after hepatectomy for HCC. Both preoperative low-BMI and high-BMI were independently associated with lower odds to achieve optimal TO following HCC resection.