A kinetic model is presented to investigate the profile evolution during ion etching. The effects of ion sputtering, redeposition, and diffusion processes are all taken into consideration in the formation mechanism of surface profile. The dominant factors accounting for the surface smoothening and roughening during ion etching are well explained in this study. Under high ion flux or ion energy, the sputtering effect plays a controlling role in roughening the surface profile with a high etching rate. While decreasing ion flux or ion energy, the surface profile is smoothened by the diffusion mechanism with a long time ion irradiation. For a low temperature, the characteristic length of nanostructures decreases with a sputtered feature profile due to the low mobility. Our simulation results are consistent well with many experimental observations. This theoretical model provides an efficient numerical approach to fully understand the mechanism for the formation of surface profile allowing for designing of appropriate experiments to form specific nanostructures through ion-beam technology.