Or go to the settings for Markdown in the Android app and check that "Enable ++insert++ syntax" is on. Then surrounding a word or phrase with ++ will underline it.
Then if you add the Menu items, shortcuts and toolbar icons plugin you will get buttons for highlight, strike through, underline, superscript and subscript (if enabled).
I think that Markdown does not have a specification for underlining. Therefore, I do not expect it to be implemented in the near future. Apart from the HTML tag, I do not know of any way to underline a word or a sentence in markdown.
In pandoc ==underline text== works. But this is pandoc spicific and not markdown. In Joplin it is used for highlighting, I learnd a few moments ago...
When using the plugin the user only needs to be aware that the corresponding settings in the app that you have to have enabled for all the plugin buttons to work are:
Maybe I need to file an issue on this: Insert does not mean Underline to most people (unless they know HTML). But, I assume Joplin is not only targetting HTML-savvy people. And even for people who know HTML, many probably have no clue about that tag. And Mark doesn't obviously mean Highlight. (Though it is more obvious than insert is to underline.)