This review is mainly concerned with the recent developments in (i) the retention mechanism of biopolymers in hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC); (ii) the synthesis of HIC packings, such as, the packings based on the inorganic and organic matrices, non-porous packings and porous membranes; (iii) the applications of HIC in both purifications of biopolymers and biochemical research, such as, renaturation and refolding of some denatured proteins, the change in molecular conformation of biopolymers. The review includes 62 references and a table.