With the rapid development of absorbing materials due to the demand for stealth technology in the military and national defense field and the increasingly serious electromagnetic pollution in life, various types of absorbing materials emerge. Compared with the conventional carbonaceous absorbing materials, biomass-derived carbonaceous materials improve the absorbing performance due to their advantages like light weight, low cost and sustainability. This review briefly represented the synthesis methods of biomass carbon materials, systematically introduced the application of edible and non-edible biomass derived materials in the preparation of carbonaceous composite absorbing materials, and described recent work on the biomass-derived carbonaceous materials. Recent research progress on the composite materials in the field of wave absorption was given. The differences in the microstructure and microwave absorption properties of different biomass-derived carbonaceous composites were mainly analyzed, and the microwave absorption mechanism of different biomass-derived carbonaceous composites was summarized. The current challenge and the directional perspective of biomass-derived carbonaceous composites absorbing materials with efficient microwave absorption properties were discussed. This review provides a comprehensive theoretical and applied knowledge background for the investigation of biomass-derived absorbing materials, which can promote the development and application of biomass-derived carbon-based composite absorbing materials.