Rubber has been broadly used in automobile, aerospace and petrochemical industries as sealing materials. However, rubber demonstrates high friction coefficient owing to its viscoelasticity, which makes it extremely prone to be worn out during application. Because of the advantages of simple operation, green pollution-free and no damage to the internal structure of matrix, vacuum coating has become one of the hot research directions of wear-resistant modification. Among the coating systems, diamond-like carbon (DLC) film displays combined mechanical properties and corrosion resistance including high hardness, low friction coefficient and superior wear resistance, which is considered as one of the ideal coatings to modify the friction properties of rubber. In this work, the main preparation methods of DLC films on rubber surface, including magnetron sputtering and plasma chemical vapor deposition technology, were illustrated. The surface topographical characteristics of rubber/DLC composites were reviewed, especially focusing on the effects of temperature variations on surface patch structures. Furthermore, the evaluation methods of interfacial adhesion of rubber/DLC composites were introduced, mainly including the X-cutting method, scratch test and strain test. The effects of plasma treatment for substrate surface, adding transition layer and doping heterogeneous element into DLC matrix on the adhesion between rubber and DLC films were investigated as well. Among them, plasma treatment was relatively widely used for its multifaceted functions, such as removing contaminants, changing chemical bonds of polymer surface and forming in-situ transition layer during continuous etching. In addition, by using rigid ball as friction pair, the performance measurement of tribological properties for rubber/DLC composites was elaborated. The viscoelasticity of rubber lead to large deformation during friction process, and made it difficult to measure the wear volume accurately. On the basis of rubber viscoelasticity, the tribological behavior for rubber/DLC composites was explored. The friction mainly originated from two parts:adhesion between grinding ball and composites, hysteresis effect of rubber. The viscoelasticity of rubber caused the variable size and shape of friction contact area. With the increase of contact time, the depth of grinding ball into composites tended to be enlarged, causing the rise of friction coefficient. Moreover, the features and deficits of following wear models, including Maxwell model, Voigt model, double Voigt model and SLS model, were summarized. Due to the mismatch of mechanical properties and structures, the adhesion between DLC film and rubber became weak. Moreover, different from steel metals, the high viscoelasticity of rubber made the friction behavior of rubber/DLC composites more complex, and the related wear failure mechanism still remained obscured. Finally, by focusing on the present problems and challenges existing in the wear-resistant modification of DLC films on rubber, the future research direction was discussed and prospected. To obtain rubber/DLC composites with strong interfacial adhesion and excellent wear resistance, the following work needs to be further studied:1) developing the high ionization plasma modification technology, 2) exploring the wear failure mechanism by adjusting the micro/nano structures of composites, 3) establishing a scientific evaluation method for interfacial adhesion and wear loss, 4) constructing a more accurate theoretical model to simulate dynamic friction behavior of composites.