The traditional methods for treating chromium-containing wastewater include chemical precipitation, electro deposition, membrane filtration, and ion exchange. These methods are generally simple and convenient; however, some drawbacks such as secondary pollution and high treatment cost remain unsolved. Hence it is of urgent need to find a low-cost and efficient heavy metal containing wastewater treatment method. Biosorption is an emerging technology for the treatment of heavy metal containing wastewater, which has received numerous attention from researchers. Due to its simplicity and low-cost, biosorption is regarded as one of the green and environmental friendly methods to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. Biomass material surface contains a large number of active functional groups, which exhibits high metal uptake capacity and affinity towards industrial effluents. After modification, the adsorption capacity and adsorption rate of the adsorbent can be improved significantly. However, due to some shortcomings in physical and chemical properties, the application of biomass adsorbents in industrial wastewater is still limited. This review introduces the research on the treatment of chromium containing wastewater by biomass adsorption, and compared biosorption with conventional treatment methods in the field of metal adsorption and recovery, followed by focusing on the current research progress and development of biosorption materials with conventional physical and chemical modifications. The adsorption characteristics and influencing factors for the removal of heavy metal ions by modified biomass are analyzed, with the comparison of modified biomaterials with other adsorbents on the efficiency of removing hexavalent chromium ions. Afterwards, according to the type of interaction between the surfactant and the adsorbent, it can be concluded four adsorption mechanisms of biomass adsorbents towards hexavalent chromium, which are complexation/chelation, electrostatic interaction, ion exchange, and oxidation-reduction reaction. According to the activity and electron-donating ability of the groups on the adsorption materials, active functional groups including amino, hydroxyl, and thiol are generally act as electron donors during the adsorption process.