A solid adsorbent for SO2 adsorption was prepared from magnesium salt/rice straw via co-precipitation/calcination. The effects of various preparation conditions, including the calcination temperature, the weight ratio of Mg/rice straw, magnesium salts, and amine precipitants, were investigated relative to their effects on the desulfurization performance of adsorbents. Maximum sulfur adsorption capacity (260 mg/g) was obtained with MgO/rice straw biochar adsorbent using tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) as the precipitants, and the preparation conditions included a calcination temperature of 400 °C, a Mg/rice straw weight ratio of 1.2, and magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl2·6H2O) as the magnesium source. The rice straw biochar-supported MgO sample displayed a high SO2 adsorption capacity due to its excellent textural properties, large specific surface areas, small crystallite size, numerous surface active sites of MgO nanoparticles, and introduced N-H groups. The physical and chemical properties of samples were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analyses, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR), elemental analysis (EA), and X-ray diffraction (XRD).