I'm having a difficult time googling this in anyway that gives me an answer, so maybe I'm not doing a very good job at explain myself. I basically want a word that describes every down on his luck, underdog protagonist ever. You know the type. Typically through no fault of their own they find themselves in a dangerous situation, and while whoever it is they have managed to enrage appears to have every advantage in the world somehow this character makes it to the end alive and (mostly) well. Sure, they didn't win, but they survived if only by the seat of their pants, but considering the odds against them that isn't half bad.
Failing an actual identifier, any sort of descriptive word meaning about the same would work. The most important thing is that it denotes "only just managing to survive/escape/get through the situation".
Best Answer
a 'born survivor' (It's two words but that's just how the expression is)
Example
She had suffered enough pain and loss for several lives, and she was a born survivor. She was strong beyond reckoning. Legion By Steven Carlton