Most alcyonacean corals do not make full-body, protective skeletons like the corals that build reefs. Their bodies are instead supported by separate skeletal pieces (sclerites) embedded in their flesh. While some Alcyonacea are called soft corals, the hard sclerites give their flesh a bumpy or spiky texture. Some grow in a globular, mushroom-like shape, but others (sea fans) have many, flattened branches that intertwine to form a lattice. The branching species get additional support from binding materials (such as proteins or calcium carbonate). This loose structure makes their bodies strong enough to grow as tall as several meters, while remaining flexible enough to sway in ocean currents. Many Alcyonacea release toxic chemicals, such as terpenes, that function in defense. Their often bright-colored bodies are a warning to predators that, between the toxins and the sclerites, they are not good to eat.

Anthozoans (anemones and corals) have stem-like bodies that anchor to the ocean body or other surface. Tentacles radiate like petals around the top of the stem (anthozoa flower animals). Both their bodies and tentacles are hollow, opening into a mouth in the center of the flower. Anemones and corals capture food with their tentacles and push it into their mouths. While they mostly eat small, floating food (plankton), stingers (nematocytes) on their tentacles allow some anthozoans to consume larger prey (even fish or crabs) by stunning them first. Food travels from the mouth to the hollow space inside their bodies, where it is digested. Since they have only one opening, waste products are expelled back out their mouths. Some anthozoans benefit from a relationship with unicellular algae (mutualism). While the coral provides a safe place for the algae to live, the algae makes food by photosynthesizing.