Polydiacetylene (PDA) micelles have been widely used to deliver anticancer drugs in the treatment of a variety of tumours and for imaging living cells. In this study, we developed an effective strategy to directly conjugate magainin II (MGN-II) to the surface of PDA micelles using a fluorescent dye. These stable and well-defined PDA micelles had high cytotoxicity in cancer cell lines, and were able to reduce the tumour size in mice. The modified PDA micelles improved the anticancer effects of MGN-II in the A549 cell line only at a concentration of 16.0 μg mL(-1) (IC50). In addition, following irradiation with UV light at 254 nm, the PDA micelles gave rise to an energy transfer from the fluorescent dye to the backbone of PDA micelles to enhance the imaging of living cells. Our results demonstrate that modified PDA micelles can not only be used in the treatment of tumors in vitro and in vivo in a simple and directed way, but also offer a new platform for designing functional liposomes to act as anticancer agents.