Liver is one of the largest internal organs in the body and its importance for metabolism, detoxification and homeostasis has been well established. In this review, we summarized recent progresses in studying liver initiation and development during embryogenesis using zebrafish as a model system. We mainly focused on topics related to the specification of hepatoblasts from endoderm, the formation and growth of liver bud, the differentiation of hepatocytes and bile duct cells from hepatoblasts, and finally the role of mesodermal signals in controlling liver development in zebrafish.