The protagonist and first-person narrator of Tight, Bryan is a sixth-grader who lives with his parents and older sister in a low-income neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. An African American of Puerto Rican descent, Bryan has a “light caramel” complexion. His sister, whose complexion is darker, used to tease him about his origins, making him worry that he was not a true member of the family. With no brothers and with a distant father who is often in jail, Bryan has felt lonely for some time, partly because his mother, trying to protect him from bad influences, has dissuaded him from having friends. Bryan is very close to his mother and considers her to be his best friend. He also studies hard in school to please her. His other great love is superhero comics, though he can rarely afford to buy them. One of his favorite thought experiments is to evaluate the powers of various superheroes (Batman, the Flash, Black Panther, Luke Cage, Daredevil) and imagine which ones he would like to have.

Like his classmates, Bryan uses a fair amount of slang (“kicks,” “heads,” “dope,” “lit,” “props,” etc.), both in conversation and in his narration.