An apparatus and method for SFBC coding and decoding in a communication system using a plurality of (Nt) Tx antennas are provided. In a transmitter using Nt transmit antennas, a pre-coder pre-codes an input symbol sequence using a pre-coding matrix. The pre-coding matrix is produced by puncturing a unitary matrix in a predetermined method. An encoder generates a plurality of vectors by grouping the symbols of the pre-coded symbol sequence by twos, space-frequency maps each of the vectors by encoding each of the vectors in an Alamouti coding scheme, and provides each of the space-frequency mapped symbols to a predetermined OFDM modulator.