1) Open up your hypershade, and from the 2D textures section, middle-mouse-drag a checker into the work area

2) Select the hand, and right-click (hold) on the checker texture, and choose "Assign Texture's Material to Selection" (should be the top option)

The hand should now look something like this:

https://uglyassbaby.ytmnd.com/

Or pretty close...but don't worry; we'll fix that ^_^

For the sake of my demonstration, I'll stick with basic planar projections.

3) For now, ignore the fingers; we'll focus on the main body of the hand.

Using whatever method you like (drag select, click one at a time, paint selection), select the faces that make up the top side of the hand. Be sure to choose only the large faces; don't choose the narrow "knuckle" faces, we'll make those a part of the fingers.

4) Under the Modeling menu set (I'm using v 7.0), go to Polygon UVs -> Planar Mapping -> Options

A window, "Polygon Planar Projection Options," will open up.

All you care about in this window, for this demonstration, will be the "Mapping Direction;" there should be three little bubbles, one of which can only be active at one time. They are labeled X Axis, Y Axis and Z Axis.

Guess which one we want for the top of the hand?

That's right; Y it is ^_^

Go ahead and apply it.