Membrane separation technologies have been widely used for water treatment and precise separation owing to their low operation cost and high separation efficiency. Thin-film composite(TFC) polyamide(PA) membrane is the state-of-art choice for separation membrane and has been widely used in nanofiltration(NF), reverse osmosis(RO), forward osmosis(FO) and pressure retarded osmosis(PRO) process. TFC-PA membrane is comprised of a dense active polyamide layer and a microporous support layer, and has excellent perm-selectivity with high water flux and high salt rejection. However, due to the hydrophobicity of the PA layer and the microporous structure of the support layer, TFC-PA membrane is highly susceptible to membrane fouling, which limits its further application. Intensive works have been done to modify the TFC-PA membrane for the improved surface hydrophilicity and the enhanced antifouling performance. In this review, the fouling characteristics of TFC-PA membrane in different membrane processes are discussed, and the research progress of the antifouling TFC-PA membrane is summarized. Furthermore, the antifouling modification methods of the PA layer and the support layer are comprehensively reviewed as well as their antifouling mechanisms and the problems to be solved. This review provides some insights into the structure tailoring and surface modification of TFC-PA membrane having excellent antifouling properties.