Iron and steel materials have been extensively widely used in various engineering fields, however, iron and steel materials generally exhibit poor wear resistance. Meanwhile, friction originated from the material surface can induce problems of wearing damage, high resistance and strong noise during operations. The mentioned problems can cause damage or failure of materials and exert deleterious effect on normal operation of partial or whole assembly units, and then reduce the working efficiency and produce noise pollution. It has been confirmed that surface texture formed on the surface of materials can have a positive influence on the tribological behavior of iron and steel materials and achieve effective friction/wear resistance, drag reduction, noise reduction, etc. The studies and applications of surface texture for improving tribological behaviors of iron and steel materials were reviewed. The design and research of surface texture on friction/wear resistance, drag reduction and noise reduction were analyzed and compared. The relevant mechanisms of the above effects belonging to certain surface texture were also briefly expounded. Under dry friction and lubrication conditions, the special functions of friction/wear resistance derived from surface texture lie in the effects of wear debris capture, lubricant storage and hydrodynamic lubrication. During the friction with fluid and air, drag and noise reductions are realized through generating secondary vortex on the surface by surface texture, which can reduce the contact area between materials and fluid/air. At last, the prospect of surface texturing related research ideas and methods that can improve the tribological behaviors of iron and steel materials were presented.