An apparatus and method for recovering a carrier frequency of a received signal using a predefined symbol in an OFDM system is provided. A maximum value detector detects at least three values and their corresponding offsets in descending order among auto-correlation values calculated within a specific frequency offset range between a received signal and a predefined symbol. A frequency offset corrector compares a ratio of a first auto-correlation value to a second auto-correlation value with a predetermined first threshold, determines whether first and second frequency offsets corresponding to the first and second auto-correlation values are adjacent to each other if the ratio of the auto-correlation values is less than the first threshold, and determines an initial carrier frequency offset using a difference between the first frequency offset and a frequency offset correction value determined according to system, if the first and second frequency offsets are adjacent to each other and a ratio of the second auto-correlation value and a third auto-correlation value is greater than a predetermined second threshold.