AbstractLet K be a number field, and let C be a hyperelliptic curve over K with Jacobian J. Suppose that C is defined by an equation of the form for some irreducible monic polynomial of discriminant Δ and some element . Our first main result says that if there is a prime of K dividing but not (2Δ), then the image of the natural 2‐adic Galois representation is open in and contains a certain congruence subgroup of depending on the maximal power of dividing . We also present and prove a variant of this result that applies when C is defined by an equation of the form for distinct elements . We then show that the hypothesis in the former statement holds for almost all and prove a quantitative form of a uniform boundedness result of Cadoret and Tamagawa.