The present invention relates to an ex-situ pre-vulcanization method for a hydrogenation catalyst. The method comprises: (1) uniformly mixing a vulcanizing agent and an oxidation-state hydrogenation catalyst; (2) carrying out heat treatment; (3) carrying out hydrogen treatment; and (4) loading an appropriate amount of hydrocarbon oil. Compared with the method in the prior art, the method of the invention has the following advantages that (1) the start-up time of the catalyst is further reduced compared with the conventional sulfur-carrying catalyst; (2) the deep-vulcanized ex-situ pre-vulcanization catalyst can meet the initial reaction temperature for the start-up activation of the hydrogenation device, solve the requirements of the start-up operation of the hydrogenation device, and improve the safety of the hydrogenation reactor; and (3) the performance evaluation results show that the deep-vulcanized catalyst has good activity.