The invention discloses a ruthenium-palladium/carbon catalyst and a preparation method thereof. A catalyst carrier is a carbon material, and active ingredients are Ru and Pd nanoparticles, wherein the load capacity of Ru is 0.5%-8.0%, the load capacity of Pd is 0.1%-2.0%, and the dispersity of ruthenium-palladium can achieve 30%-80%. The carrier is subjected to acid-base oxidization pretreatment, so that surface oxygen-containing functional groups can be increased, the property of ruthenium-palladium on the surface of the carbon material can be improved, the dispersity of ruthenium-palladium can be improved, the active ingredients can be firmly adsorbed on the functional groups, and the catalyst can show high activity in the reaction process. The prepared catalyst is applied to DMT (dimethyltryptamine) hydrogenation to prepare DMCD (dimethyl 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate). The activity of the catalyst is not reduced after the catalyst is used for 20 times in an autoclave of 5000ml, the conversion rate of DMT can achieve 99.3%-100%, and the selectivity of DMCD can achieve 95.5%-96.4%. The purity of DMCD, which is simply distilled and purified, is greater than 99.5%. The preparation method has the advantages of being mild in technological conditions, simple in equipment, free from emission of three wastes, economic in investment, low in energy consumption, and feasible for industrialization.