Hybrid hydroxyethyl cellulose / polyacrylamide (HEC/PAM) hydrogels with excellent tensile and compressive properties were successfully prepared by one-step free-radical polymerization. The hydrogen bonds between the PAM chains and HEC chains mainly contributed to the good mechanical properties of hybrid hydrogels. The HEC/PAM hybrid hydrogels exhibit an extremely large elongation at break of 2400%, and a fracture stress of 113 kPa; they could reach a strain of over 95% without break; the compressive stress at 90% of these hybrid hydrogels reaches as high as 0.87 MPa. Meanwhile, HEC/PAM hybrid hydrogels exhibit excellent recoverable performance. Thus, the HEC/PAM hybrid hydrogels could be potentially applied in biomedical fields.