The wood-based carbon skeleton is derived from natural wood after pyrolysis. The wood-derived carbon inherits the hierarchical structural of the pore morphology and connectivity formed by the long-term evolution of wood. Due to its special structure, the carbon skeleton has huge application potential in the aspects of biological templates, sensors, oil absorbent, nanomaterial preparation, etc. The hierarchical wood-derived carbon skeleton could be further treated as a new type of scaffold, after the micro-/nano- scale modification and secondary regulation of the pores, it has extremely broad application in many innovative fields such as seawater desalination, environmental remediation, energy storage materials and electrochemical catalysis. This article first introduces the hierarchical structure of wood, describes several important stages of structural changes in the process of the wood pyrolysis, and then summarizes the application of wood-derived carbon skeleton as advanced materials in recent years. We also discuss the pros and cons of the functional carbon in the application, and prospect the future research works of wood-based carbon materials. The purposes of this review are to re-examine and functionally develop the wood hierarchical structure and to promote the development of wood as advanced materials.