Metal halide perovskite nanocrystals, due to their high absorption coefficient, high diffusion length, and photoluminescence quantum yield, have received significant attention in the fields of optoelectronic applications such as highly efficient photovoltaic cells and narrow-line-width light emitting diodes. Their energy band structure can be controlled via chemical exchange of the halide anion or monovalent cations in the perovskite nanocrystals. Recently, it has been demonstrated that chemical exfoliation of the halide perovskite crystal structure can be achieved by addition of organic ligands such as noctylamine during the synthetic process. In this study, we systematically investigated the quantum confinement effect of methylammonium lead bromide (CH3NH3PbBr3, MAPbBr3) nanocrystals by precise control of the crystal thickness via chemical exfoliation using n-octylammonium bromide (OABr). We found that the crystalline thickness consistently decreases with increasing amounts of OABr, which has a larger ionic radius than that of CH3NH3+ ions. In particular, a significant quantum confinement effect is observed when the amounts of OABr are higher than 60 %, which exhibited a blue-shifted PL emission (~ 100 nm) as well as an increase of energy bandgap (~ 1.53 eV).