Drought stress is one of the major environmental factors affecting crop growth and productivity. Cuticular wax plays essential roles in protecting plants from environmental stress via forming a hydrophobic barrier on leaf epidermis. In this study, we analyzed nine members (OsCUT1-OsCUT9) of β-ketoacyl-CoA synthase, the rate-limiting key enzyme for cuticular wax synthesis in rice by homology search and domain prediction. The expression levels of OsCUT genes under different abiotic stresses were investigated and OsCUT1 down-regulated by abiotic stress was selected for further function validation. Compared to the wild type, overexpression of OsCUT1 (OX-OsCUT1) exhibited significantly increased drought resistance. Epicuticular wax was increased on the leaf surface of OX-OsCUT1 and the chlorophyll leaching experiment showed that the cuticular permeability was decreased in the OX-OsCUT1 plants. Moreover, overexpression of OsCUT1 didn’t result in the significant changes of major agronomic traits. In total, these results suggested that OsCUT1 is a promising gene for engineering rice plants with enhanced drought tolerance.