In this work, powder metallurgy and severe plastic deformation by high-pressure torsion (HPT) approaches were combined to achieve both full density and grain refinement at the same time. Pure Cu powders were mixed with 5 and 10 vol% diamonds and consolidated into disc-shaped samples at room temperature by HPT at 1.25 GPa and 1 turn, resulting in ultrafine grained metallic matrices embedded with diamonds. Neither heating nor additional sintering was required with the HPT process so that in situ consolidation was successfully achieved at ambient temperature. Significantly refined grain structures of Cu metallic matrices with increasing diamond volume fractions were observed by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), which enhanced the microhardness of the Cu-diamond composites.