You receive this companion on Nar Shadaa.

He is a melee Tank. He uses heavy armor and a vibrosword.

If you're trying to gain Bowdaar AP, here's a list of his likes/dislikes, beginning with gifts (0 = does not like, + = likes, ++ = loves, +++ = favorite):

Courting: +
Cultural Artifact: +++
Imperial Memorabilia: 0
Luxury: +++
Military Gear: +
Republic Memorabilia: 0
Technology: +
Trophy: ++
Underworld Good: +
Weapon: ++

If you want to conserve your less effective gifts for other companions, stick primarily to cultural artifacts and luxury items with the occasional trophy or weapon.

As far as his conversational likes and dislikes go, his Codex entry indicates that he likes "A good fight against worthy foes, protecting the weak, personal honor" and dislikes "Cruelty, bullying, slavery, respecting authority that's in the wrong".

While I highly suggest not picking an answer just because "Bowdaar would like it", it's still nice to know what you can say and/or give to get on his good side. Remember: an answer he doesn't particularly favor will still only lose you 1AP under most circumstances. Don't ruin your story just to get on his good side. :) And you can always hit ESC mid-conversation if you want to start over.

Just maxed out my affection with good ol Bowdarr.

Guess What?

Nothing happened.

But needless to say, we are pretty good friends.

Bowdaar, more than any other companion I've come across, needs a gear upgrade as soon as you get him. If you send him into a group of same-level mobs thinking he's going to tank them like Qyzen, you're going to be disappointed when he gets flattened in 5 seconds. I had a ton of extra Coruscant commendations, so I picked up the orange vibrosword from the vendor there and then slapped in some more level-appropriate mods. I'd also suggest buying as much level-appropriate +STR heavy gear from the GTN as you can afford, then put it on him right away. Once he's geared, he's a fantastic tank though. For gunslingers I much prefer Bowdaar to Corso; he keeps mobs at range and holds aggro on more than 1 at a time.

I should clarify too, that his weapon he comes with is upgradeable, I just had a ton of Coruscant commendations so I used them on an orange sword. As an illustration of how bad his gear is when you get him, I compared tooltips of the level 16 orange sword to his sword he had when I acquired him (level 24) and he would have only lost 4 STR and 5 END if I had given him the level 16 sword.

As efficiency only speeds the crew skill completion time, Bowdaar is best used to complete "mission" crew skills rather than "crafting" crew skills.
The Smuggler companions that best support crafting crew skills are:

Armstech: Corso Riggs (+5 Crit Armstech) and Guss (+2 Crit Investigation)
Biochem: Akaavi (+2 Crit Bioanalysis)
Cybertech: Risha (+1 Crit Slicing)

Clearly, Corso is the only companion that really aids a smuggler in the actual act of crafting; the others facilitate the collection of components either through critical enhancements or speed of mission completion (which as we all know is marginal at best even with max affection)