The biomedical application of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites is limited by lacking bioactivity and releasing carbon debris. Hydroxyapatite (HA) coating has been used to improve the bioactivity of C/C composites, but it cannot reduce the release of carbon debris effectively because of poor wear resistance property. In this work, a wear‐resistant layer of diamond like carbon (DLC) is applied on C/C composites, followed by an ultrasound‐assisted electrochemical deposition to prepare HA coatings. The microstructure, morphology and chemical composition of the DLC layer and the HA coating are characterised by scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy and Raman spectrum. The bonding strength between the HA coating and the DLC layer modified C/C composites is examined by a tensile test. The results show that the DLC layer has a spherical morphology and provides a uniform surface for the deposition of the HA coating. The HA coating shows flaky morphology with a compact structure. The tensile strength of the HA coating on the DLC layer modified C/C composites is 6.24 ± 0.40 MPa, which is significantly higher than that of HA coating on unmodified C/C composites(3.04 ± 0.20 MPa). Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.