The COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented challenges and impacts on all aspects of human lives, including leisure behaviors. The current study aims to explore the relationship between COVID stress and leisure coping and attempts to understand changes in leisure behavior among college students in Taiwan. An online questionnaire survey was conducted in June 2022, and 403 valid questionnaires were returned. The results revealed that respondents perceived only a mild COVID stress level in which the dimension "COVID danger and contamination" was relatively higher. The results also indicated a decline in participation in all types of leisure activities except online entertainment activities. COVID stress had no significant influence on leisure coping strategy, while leisure coping strategy had a significant and positive influence on adaptive outcomes. Moreover, a negative and weak but significant relationship was observed between leisure companionship and COVID stress. Finally, managerial implications and suggestions for future research were proposed based on the research results.