The antioxidant activities of methanolic extracts of far-infrared irradiated rice hull (FRH) and non-irradiated intact rice hull (IRH) were determined. The antioxidant effects against reactive oxygen species (ROS) were evaluated by measuring scavenging activities against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and nitric oxide radical and capacity for chelating metals. Except for H2O2 scavenging activity, FRH showed higher scavenging activity than IRH; for example, the 50% inhibitory concentration (mg/mL) values for DPPH radical scavenging of FRH and IRH were 0.067 and 0.085, respectively, as compared with 0.362 and 0.012 for butylated hydroxytoluene and alpha-tocopherol, respectively. The effect of rice hull extract on DNA damage induced by H2O2 in human lymphocytes was also evaluated by comet assay. The protective effect of rice hull extract increased as its concentration increased from 12.5 to 50 microg/mL, as indicated by DNA strand breakage decreasing from 38% to 22% with FRH and from 49% to 28% with IRH as compared with H2O2-treated positive controls. When human lymphocytes were post-incubated with rice hull extract for 30 minutes after exposure to H2O2, the protective ability of the rice hulls remained unchanged. These results suggest that methanol extracts of rice hulls possess significant ROS scavenging and metal chelating activities and protective effect against oxidative DNA damage.