Abstract: As a frontier interdisciplinary field with high engineering value, water entry impact of structures faces numerous theoretical and technical challenges. This paper systematically reviews the advances in theoretical analysis models, numerical simulation methods, and their applications in this field. It focuses on elucidating the core physical mechanisms and complex loading characteristics during water entry (covering stages of surface impact, liquid flow, cavity evolution, and cavity closure), while tracing the developmental trajectory of theoretical models—from the Von Karman model to the generalized Wagner model. Concurrently, a detailed critique is provided on prevailing numerical simulation methods for water entry impact and their applications. Despite significant achievements, critical challenges and broad development prospects remain. Based on this, three primary research directions are proposed: deepening the study of strongly coupled multiphysics mechanisms, developing high-accuracy and high-efficiency numerical methods, and expanding complex engineering application scenarios.