Distinctive person also has tough exterior (8)
I believe the answer is:
standout
'distinctive' is the definition.
'person also has tough exterior' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'also' could be 'and' (both can mean in addition) and 'and' is found within the answer.
'person' could be 'tout' (tout is a kind of person) and 'tout' is located in the remaining letters.
A single letter 's' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for standout that I've seen before include "project" , "Persist in opposing" .)