Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is mostly caused by motor vehicle traffic accidents or competitive sports, with high mortality and disability. TBI mainly includes primary injury and secondary injury. Primary injuries were caused directly by external forces. Secondary injuries include brain edema, excitotoxic effect of neuron cells, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, etc. Effective intervention of secondary injury not only helps to improve the prognosis of patients with TBI, but also reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases related to TBI. Autophagy is one of approaches to regulate homeostasis in cells, and autophagy dysfunction has been found in several neurodegenerative diseases and TBI. It is speculated that autophagy dysfunction may play an important role in TBI and explain why patients with TBI have higher risk of neurodegenerative disease. Discovering the role of autophagy in the pathological mechanism of TBI may provide new targets for TBI clinical treatment and cognitive impairment prevention in patients with TBI.