Advancement in additive manufacturing technologies helped researchers design and fabricate cellular structures. Cellular structures possess lightweight and desirable mechanical properties. One such structure is called “auxetic” structures. “Auxetics” is the term used for structures that exhibit a negative Poisson’s ratio. These structures exhibit unique properties such as lateral contraction under axial compression or lateral expansion under axial tension. Such behavior helped it find applications in medicine (stents), sports, robotics, etc. The auxetic response is a result of the deformation behavior of the individual unit cell. The design of the unit cell influences the overall performance of auxetic structures under various loading. For any cellular materials, energy absorption is a crucial parameter as it prevents structures from potential impacts. Auxetic materials that contract laterally will yield more material in the middle part of the structure, which could improve the energy absorption capability of it. However, the energy absorption aspect of the auxetic structures is still unexplored. In this work, we have tested a known auxetic structure (3D re-entrant) under dynamic compressive loading. A finite element (FE) model developed in ABAQUS/Explicit was validated using the test results. The validated FE model was used to study the influence of the geometrical parameters on the strength, energy absorption, and Poisson’s ratio. Based on the understanding, we developed a novel auxetic unit cell and tested it under compression (Quasi-static and dynamic) loading.