A friend of mine bought Starbound, and I'm wondering how to install it/run it without corrupting.
Please help, i wanted to play Starbound with my friend.

What are you corrupting? How can you tell? Which chromebook?

"HP chromebook, im not sure what version"
is what he said.
"not compatible with this device"

Of course it's not compatible. Chromebooks have Chrome OS which isn't a Windows OS, Mac OS or Linux. :-P

Also, I think some chromebooks have ARM processors making it even worse. If it has an Intel or AMD processor, it could maybe be made useful by installing something like Linux Mint Mate on it.

Isn't Chrome OS? just a modified version of Android (which is in turn just a modified version of Linux)

Where did he buy it? From Google Play? Do you mean this game?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.harsh.starbound&hl=en

If, on the other hand, he bought it from GOG.com, tell him that he must have a Windows, Linux or Mac OS X computer to play it. Chromebook doesn't have any of those as far as I know.

Read the minimum requirements here ("Game details => Works on:)

https://www.gog.com/game/starbound