An apparatus and method for initial fractional frequency offset estimation are provided. In an apparatus for estimating an initial fractional frequency offset in a Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) communication system, the apparatus includes a sample power calculator for calculating a power of input sample data and for calculating an average power of a specific symbol, a power threshold comparator for comparing the sample data power in magnitude with the average power of the specific symbol and for outputting one of an accumulation ON and OFF signal, a first buffer for correlating a last data of the sample data with the sample data and for storing sample data corresponding to a preset number of correlation results, a second buffer for storing sample data corresponding to correlation results other than the sample data stored in the first buffer; and an accumulator for allowing accumulation of sample data stored in the second buffer if the power threshold comparator outputs the accumulation ON signal.