Abstract: Photocatalytic water splitting for hydrogen production has attracted significant attention in the field of clean energy due to its green, renewable, and environmentally friendly characteristics. As the core of the reaction, the physicochemical properties of photocatalysts directly determine the efficiency and feasibility of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Oxide semiconductors have emerged as an important class of materials for photocatalytic hydrogen production because of their high structural stability, simple preparation process, low cost, and tunable chemical properties. However, their limited visible-light response, rapid recombination of photogenerated electron-hole pairs, and sluggish surface reaction kinetics significantly restrict their practical performance. Therefore, effective structural and performance modulation strategies are urgently required to enhance their light-harvesting capacity, carrier separation efficiency, and surface catalytic activity. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in performance modulation strategies for oxide semiconductor photocatalysts in hydrogen production, with a focus on the mechanisms and optimization effects of three representative approaches. Surface engineering effectively increases the number of light absorption sites and reactive active sites, and regulates the surface energy level structure by means of constructing specific defects, introducing surface plasmon effects, depositing cocatalysts, and so on. Interface engineering uses heterostructure design to realize interface energy band matching and built-in electric field regulation, thereby promoting the directional migration and spatial separation of photogenerated carriers while maintaining strong redox capability. Polarization engineering utilizes the polarization fields generated by piezoelectric or ferroelectric materials under external stress or temperature variation to establish a stable intrinsic potential gradient, effectively controlling carrier distribution and reaction pathways. By analyzing the fundamental principles and representative studies of these modulation strategies, this work summarizes their respective advantages and limitations in enhancing visible-light utilization, extending carrier lifetimes, and improving hydrogen evolution rates. It also highlights current challenges, including the difficulty of precise interfacial control, insufficient defect tunability, and limited long-term stability. Finally, future research directions are proposed, such as synergistic multi-strategy design, in situ characterization combined with theoretical calculations, and pilot-scale and engineering application exploration, to accelerate the development of oxide semiconductor photocatalysts toward high-efficiency, stable, and scalable hydrogen production systems.