The invention belongs to the technical field of finishing process and provides a method for calibrating friction coefficients of a tumbling chip abrasive. The method comprises steps as follows: a tumbling chip abrasive repose angle testing device is used for a dropping experiment, and an experimental value alpha of a tumbling chip abrasive repose angle is obtained; a model is established through discrete element simulation for simulation experiments under the condition of different contact parameters, and simulation values beta of the tumbling chip abrasive repose angles are obtained; simulation experiments are performed again with a response surface experimental method, and relative error delta between each simulation value beta and the experimental value alpha of the tumbling chip abrasive repose angle is obtained; regression analysis is performed, and the friction coefficients of the tumbling chip abrasive are obtained. The method for calibrating the friction coefficients is simple, reliable and easy to implement, all friction coefficients of the tumbling chip abrasive can be calibrated, and a basis is laid for optimizing of parameters of a barrelling finishing process.