To achieve simultaneous protection against both pulsed and continuous wave (CW) or quasi-CW lasers, significant research effort has been devoted to the state-of-the-art optical limiting (OL) materials and processes in an attempt to achieve some measures of protection against such laser beams in the past decades. Two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials with a lot of unique properties, including graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, black phosphorus and others, have aroused the extensive research interest of many researchers. In this review paper, we describe systematically the OL mechanisms and the recent achievements in the 2D nanomaterials and their organic/polymeric derivatives for laser protection. In an effort to sustain the advantage of 2D nanomaterials, one can not only introduce the functional molecules or polymers to blend with them to form a complex multi-phase material system, but also embed the soluble 2D nanosheets covalently functionalized with organic/polymeric materials in a polymer host to form host-guest composite materials that are expected to improve the OL performance of the whole system. All in all, an optimized complex multi-component nanomaterial system enormously enhances the performance and applicability of OL devices. In addition, the fundamental studies of the photophysical and photonic properties of 2D nanomaterials and their derivatives in various solid hosts are of significance for modifying the nanomaterials at a molecular level.