Using the determinant representation of gauge transformation operator, we have shown that the general form of $tau$ function of the $q$-KP hierarchy is a q-deformed generalized Wronskian, which includes the q-deformed Wronskian as a special case. On the basis of these, we study the q-deformed constrained KP ($q$-cKP) hierarchy, i.e. $l$-constraints of $q$-KP hierarchy. Similar to the ordinary constrained KP (cKP) hierarchy, a large class of solutions of $q$-cKP hierarchy can be represented by q-deformed Wronskian determinant of functions satisfying a set of linear $q$-partial differential equations with constant coefficients. We obtained additional conditions for these functions imposed by the constraints. In particular, the effects of $q$-deformation ($q$-effects) in single $q$-soliton from the simplest $tau$ function of the $q$-KP hierarchy and in multi-$q$-soliton from one-component $q$-cKP hierarchy, and their dependence of $x$ and $q$, were also presented. Finally, we observe that $q$-soliton tends to the usual soliton of the KP equation when $xto 0$ and $qto 1$, simultaneously.