An apparatus and method for supporting Peer to Peer (P2P) communication in a broadband wireless communication system are provided. A P2P zone within a frame used for the P2P communication includes at least one channel, each channel includes a broadcasting zone and a contention zone, and a P2P-mode transmit Mobile Station (MS) transmits a reference signal through a broadcasting zone of a channel to which itself belongs. The method MS includes determining an interference sum for each channel within the P2P zone, comparing the determined interference sums with each other, selecting a channel having the least interference sum, and transmitting information regarding the selected channel to a Base Station (BS).