diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/42380-docker_container-check-mode.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/42380-docker_container-check-mode.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..68f3666b6f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/42380-docker_container-check-mode.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+- "fixes docker_container check and debug mode (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/42380)"
diff --git a/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py b/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
index 41e61ee84d5..64406c1166a 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/module_utils/docker_common.py
@@ -120,6 +120,24 @@ if not HAS_DOCKER_PY:
         pass
 
 
+def sanitize_result(data):
+    """Sanitize data object for return to Ansible.
+
+    When the data object contains types such as docker.types.containers.HostConfig,
+    Ansible will fail when these are returned via exit_json or fail_json.
+    HostConfig is derived from dict, but its constructor requires additional
+    arguments. This function sanitizes data structures by recursively converting
+    everything derived from dict to dict and everything derived from list (and tuple)
+    to a list.
+    """
+    if isinstance(data, dict):
+        return dict((k, sanitize_result(v)) for k, v in data.items())
+    elif isinstance(data, (list, tuple)):
+        return [sanitize_result(v) for v in data]
+    else:
+        return data
+
+
 class DockerBaseClass(object):
 
     def __init__(self):
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/docker/docker_container.py b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/docker/docker_container.py
index c49092c7f30..fe068c9fb52 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/docker/docker_container.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/cloud/docker/docker_container.py
@@ -611,7 +611,7 @@ import shlex
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 from ansible.module_utils.basic import human_to_bytes
-from ansible.module_utils.docker_common import HAS_DOCKER_PY_2, HAS_DOCKER_PY_3, AnsibleDockerClient, DockerBaseClass
+from ansible.module_utils.docker_common import HAS_DOCKER_PY_2, HAS_DOCKER_PY_3, AnsibleDockerClient, DockerBaseClass, sanitize_result
 from ansible.module_utils.six import string_types
 
 try:
@@ -1795,7 +1795,7 @@ class ContainerManager(DockerBaseClass):
             self.container_remove(container.Id)
 
     def fail(self, msg, **kwargs):
-        self.client.module.fail_json(msg=msg, **kwargs)
+        self.client.module.fail_json(msg=msg, **sanitize_result(kwargs))
 
     def _get_container(self, container):
         '''
@@ -2122,7 +2122,7 @@ def main():
     )
 
     cm = ContainerManager(client)
-    client.module.exit_json(**cm.results)
+    client.module.exit_json(**sanitize_result(cm.results))
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':