Phosphate recovery from water is essential for reducing water eutrophication and alleviating the phosphorus resource crisis. In this study, spent coffee grounds and CaCl2 were used as raw materials and a modifier, respectively, to create a novel calcium modified biochar (MBC) for removing phosphorus from water. The modified biochar (MBC) was the best at removing phosphorous when the modifier concentration was 1.5 M with theoretically maximum adsorption capacity of 70.26 mg/g. MBC also performed well in the wide pH range of 3-11 under different phosphorus concentration gradients, with phosphorus removal efficiency of more than 50 %. According to kinetic analysis, the adsorption process at low phosphorus concentrations (50-100 mg/L) can be more properly described by the pseudo-first-order model, while the pseudo-second-order model best describes the adsorption process at high concentrations (200-600 mg/L). The thermodynamic analysis indicated that the adsorption process was spontaneous and endothermic. Characterization results revealed that surface precipita-tion, complexation, and ligand exchange were the dominant mechanisms of phosphorus adsorption. MBC has great potential to recover phosphorus from wastewater.