Will Gufw firewall protect me from being hacked?

No, nobody can give you that insurance.

Is this because Transmission acts like a server and therefore requires specific Gufw rules to allow for safe connections?

It very much depends on the content and source of "the things" your wants to download via transmission.(imho)

First off ubuntu like most linux distros is highly resistant to viruses yes? Furthermore running as a low level user will also help yes?

I also thought gufw firewall blocked all incoming connections- if i download something off transmission then am i not connecting to a host via outbound connection? Therefore if said host decides to attack me would not gufw firewall block the incoming attack?

A short answer to this would be: yes.

It also depends on what you are downloading under transmission. You
could possibly be downloading something that is bad for your system, for
example a script file that runs and sends our your personal info. SO
PLEASE PLEASE READ THE TORRENT FILE'S DESCRIPTION AND THE COMMENTS THAT
OTHERS POST to be safe on that side. Other than that you are pretty
safe :)

--
Regards,
Vikram Dhillon

On Sat, 2009-12-12 at 08:46 +0000, meow wrote:
> New question #93796 on Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/93796
>
> Hi
>
> Ive got gufw firewall to default deny all connections and i have avast on demand scanner for linux. Will this keep me safe when i download things via Transmission client?
>