Zirconium alloy is widely used in pressurized water reactors fuel cladding due to its lower thermal neutron absorption cross section, excellent radiation resistance, good nuclear fuel compatibility, etc. After the Fukushima nuclear accident, zirconium alloy modified by the surface chromium coating has become one of the key research directions of accident tolerant fuel cladding materials, and is considered to be the technology which is most likely to be put into commercial application in the short term. The paper reviewed recent research results of chromium coating on zirconium alloy for nuclear fuel cladding. The performance advantages of the chromium coating under the accident and normal working conditions were introduced; and the matching characteristics of chromium coating with zirconium alloy substrate in thermal properties were analyzed. The advantages and disadvantages of the existing chromium coating preparation methods, including laser cladding, spray coating, physical vapor deposition were compared emphatically. Among them, laser cladding and spraying technology had the characteristics of faster deposition speed and relatively simpler process condition, but their coating thickness and roughness were high, and their uniformity was poor. However, the coating prepared by physical vapor deposition technology had good overall performance, but the disadvantages were lower coating deposition speed and high vacuum environment required in the deposition process. It still required studying further for the preparation processes of the surface chromium coating on cladding tube suitable for commercial production and considering both high quality and low cost. The high-temperature oxidation failure mechanism of chromium coatings was summarized. It was proposed that the delamination of the coating, the consumption of the residual chromium layer and the diffusion of zirconium element along the chromium grain boundary during the high temperature oxidation process were the main reasons for the formation of rapid oxygen diffusion channels, which resulted in the coating failure ultimately. Finally, several problems and their solutions in the current research were put forward, which provided a reference for further research on the surface chromium coating of the cladding zirconium alloy.