Biodegradable poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) hydrogels for engineered tissue constructs were developed using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), a degradable crosslinker and a macroinitiator. Hydrogels are appropriate materials for tissue engineering scaffolds due to their tissue-like mechanical compliance and mass transfer properties. However, many hydrogels that have seen wide application in medicine are not biodegradable or cannot be easily cleared from the body. Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) was selected for the scaffold material due to its reasonable mechanical strength, elasticity, long history of successful use in medicine and because it can be easily fabricated into numerous configurations. pHEMA was studied at various molecular weights between 2 kDa and 50 kDa. The molecular weight range suitable for renal clearance was an important factor in the experimental design. The fabricated hydrogels contain oligomeric blocks of polycaprolactone (PCL), a hydrolytically and enzymatically degradable polymer, as a crosslinking agent. In addition a degradable macroinitiator also containing oligomeric PCL was used to initiate the ATRP. The chain length, crosslink density, and polymerization solvent were found to greatly affect the mechanical properties of the pHEMA hydrogels. Degradation of the pHEMA hydrogels was characterized using 0.007 M NaOH, lipase solutions and phosphate buffered saline. Mass loss, swelling ratio and tensile modulus were evaluated. Degradation products from the sodium hydroxide were measured using gel permeation chromatography (GPC) to verify the polymer lengths and polydispersity. Erosion was only observed in the sodium hydroxide and lipase solutions. However, swelling ratio and tensile modulus indicate bulk degradation in all PCL containing samples. Degradable hydrogels in enzymatic solutions showed 30% mass loss in 16 weeks. Initial cell toxicity studies indicate no adverse cellular response to the hydrogels or their degradation products. These hydrogels have appropriate mechanical properties, a tunable degradation rate, and are composed of materials currently in FDA approved devices. Thus the degradable pHEMA developed in this study has considerable potential as a scaffold for tissue engineering in cardiac and other applications.