Your friend plays like every other over-aggressive idiot-bully I've ever seen:

"He plays with reckless abandon, and often times builds a huge chip lead then loses it all"

So your strategy should be simply this...play solid poker! I totally disagree with the "poker is a gamble" theory...yes, you will have "luck" beat you from time to time...nothing you can do about that. But in the end, the math WILL prevail...so play mathematically sound poker, and you will beat this player regularly.

The only real strategy change I might make is don't bet marginal hands that you THINK you have won (but you're not sure) for value. Take what money you can get until you have the monster...then lower the boom.

I do agree with the one poster's suggestion that you have to play back at players who consistently bulldoze...but only to a point. This strategy SIMPLY DOESN'T WORK AGAINST A WEAK PLAYER...far too often you'll end up putting your OWN self on tilt doing this. Play solid, fundamental poker...get your brain around the math of the game, then simply outplay the weakling. Against a stronger player, though, you HAVE to serve notice that you won't be pushed around...so yes, in that case, you have to play back at them now and then.

Lastly...you probably DO need to alter your table image a bit...by mixing it up. The thing that confounds you about your friend is you just can't get a read on him. Frustrating, isn't it? SO ADAPT THIS! It's time you started frustrating everyone else!