I have a checkbutton inside of a menu widget in python with tkinter. (Using python 3.5.2). I know that with normal checkbuttons you can select or deselect the checkbuttons using checkbutton.select() and checkbutton.deselect(). I need to know how to do this with the checkbuttons that I have in the menu object.
I have tried the menu.entrybutton.configure(id, coption) method but there is no coption for selecting and deselecting checkbuttons within the menu. 
Any help would be appreciated.
You should assign an IntVar (or possibly StringVar) to the checkbutton when you create it, via its variable= configuration option.  You call .get() on this var to check the button's state, and .set() to change its state.
Selecting and deselecting tkinter Menu Checkbutton widgets