Liver cancer remains one of the leading cause of cancer death in the world. Animal models, especially mouse models, are important tools for studying the biological characteristics, pathogenesis, new drug screening and therapy of liver cancer. Up to now, although the development of various animal models accelerates the research of liver cancer, all the existing models have their own disadvantages. Lacking of economical and applicable animal models that can mimic the human liver cancer seriously restrict the further study of liver cancer. With the development of genetically modified technologies, it provides a fast, easy and reliable method to establish liver cancer models. In this review, we describe the different types of mouse models used in liver cancer research, with emphasis on genetically engineered mice used in this field, which may open an avenue for functional cancer genomics and generation of liver cancer models by using gene editing technologies.