You can change the color directly in XML. Use buttonTint
for the box: (as of API level 23)
<CheckBox
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:buttonTint="@color/CHECK_COLOR" />
You can also do this using appCompatCheckbox v7
for older API levels:
<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
app:buttonTint="@color/COLOR_HERE" />