Polymer surfaces play a big role in polymer materials properties and applications. Because of the highly inert surfaces, a majority of polymer materials need surface modification and functionalization. UV-induced surface graft polymerization is obviously advantages over other methods for surface graft modification and thus has found a great number of practical applications. This review is designed to introduce the latest developments in UV-induced surface graft polymerizations and polymeric materials surface modifications, mainly according to our own investigations and also referring to some important achievements from others. This article covers the following contents: controlled/living surface graft polymerizations, self-initiated surface graft polymerizations (i.e., surface graft polymerizations in the absence of photoinitiators), unable-to-be-irradiated surface graft polymerizations, surface graft/crosslinking reactions, and surface photochemical reactions. The last section was dedicated to discuss the relevant intractable problems. This review is expected to speed up the progress in the intriguing research field: polymeric materials surface modification and functionalization.